


A political perspective

by MueraRashaye



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Teambuilding, council goes too far
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 22:06:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MueraRashaye/pseuds/MueraRashaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hatake Kakashi was a shinobi, and as a shinobi, the only people who could give him orders were his military superiors. The idea that a Council made up of civilians and peers was under the impression they could give him orders...displeased him.</p><p>Or: He was ordered to pass Team 7. He was fine with that, until they actually passed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Jounin Hatake,” the Sandaime said when Kakashi entered his office a mere thirty minutes late.

Kakashi raised his gaze from his book and put it into his vest, giving an almost insultingly casual bow as he said, “Hokage-sama.” But they both knew his true show of respect was in remaining so relaxed and putting his book away.

“You are due to test a genin team tomorrow. Team Seven this time. I trust you are aware of the members.”

“Naturally, Hokage-sama.”

“Good, good. I do not need to tell you to give them a real chance?” the Sandaime raised a loaded brow as he lit his pipe.

“All my teams have an equal chance. They simply fail to take it,” Kakashi replied laconically, both of them knowing what that surface-compliant statement meant.

“I have been asked to pass on the Council’s high expectations for this group. They trust a Team 7 will join the ranks tomorrow. Though I know it is foolish, I also hope that these three will prove themselves.”

“I see Hokage-sama. I hear and obey you, Hokage-sama,” Kakashi eye-smiled before bowing again at the quick dismissal.

Back in his office, the Sandaime watched him go with regret. Naruto would be crushed at having to go back to the Academy, even after all this, but shinobi like Hatake Kakashi did not take well to the idea a half-civilian council had any say in shinobi matters.

Nor did he, for that matter.

===***===pagebreak===***===

Kakashi eyed the waiting trio from under his concealment jutsu. He had been disappointed yesterday. It was like a fractured mirror of the old Team Seven and there was no way they would pass. But that was probably just as well, he was no Minato-sensei and had failed his teammates enough as it was. No need to drag down three innocent genin with his curse.

Now, though, he was grimly content with the team's intractable nature. When the Hokage had called him to his office yesterday, he had expected a semi-subtle guilt trip to get him to more seriously consider passing the brats. He had not expected the revelation that the Council was completely overstepping their bounds, or the tacit permission of the Hokage to completely disregard those out-of-line orders. This team’s complete failure to mesh only made their rejection legitimate enough he couldn’t even be reprimanded for it.

Dropping the jutsu, he strolled over with two lunches, a clock and two bells, grinning under his mask at the so sweet shrieks, “YOU’RE LATE!”

 _Sorry brats_ , he thought as he gleefully explained just how they were going down, _It’s for the best._

**Immediately after the exam…**

_Of all the cursed luck,_ Kakashi swore mentally as he walked away from a tied-up Naruto. He needed to report to the Hokage, after he told Minato-sensei about his son passing and figured out how the hell he was going to do this.

“Minato-sensei,” he greeted, standing on the Yondaime’s head, very aware this was Naruto’s favorite spot for hard thinking, he had been an ANBU watcher for years after all.

“So the brat’s passed, legitimately,” Kakashi grimaced, “So now the civilians are going to think they have power over the internal workings of the shinobi forces, because no one is going to believe those three passed a teamwork test, not as is.”

Hatake Kakashi stared out over his village, mind jumping in a million different directions as he let his full genius bear down on the problem at hand. The solution he came up with was easy in concept but execution was a whole different batch of kunai. Handling this was going to be a lot of work, and if anything, it was a good thing two of the three had only the bare basics, because he’d be building them from the ground up.

They wouldn’t pass a teamwork test as is? Fine. He would make them the _definition_ of teamwork.

“Thanks sensei,” he said aloud, turning to leave, “Pray for your son. He’ll be needing it before I’m through with him.”

===***===pagebreak===***===

“Good morning _mina-san_!” Kakashi beamed exaggeratedly at his next project.

“YOU’RE… on time?” Naruto blinked at him, the other two equally confused and surprised but unwilling to admit it.

“Don’t get used to it,” Kakashi chirped, “Now listen closely little ducklings. You are caught in a political tug-of-war and will be torn apart, probably one of you dead by the end of the year, so shut up and listen.”

Naruto opened his mouth, probably to shout something, but Sakura slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide as she stared at Kakashi. Sasuke tried to act nonchalant but he had obviously tensed at the statement. Good. It’d be up to the next bit to sell it to them all.

“Good, you can learn,” Kakashi let his merry tone drop as he stared down at the genin sitting on the bridge.

“You _should_ all be aware that though the Hokage has final word on all decisions there is a Council made up evenly of civilians elected in and shinobi, most also Clan Heads, which assists and advises him. Unless the Hokage wants to have to micromanage everything—which, I assure you, he does _not_ —he must allow the Council some word in his decisions. This results in situations like the one you now face.”

“Certain parties on the Council believe they have the right to manage the internal workings of the shinobi forces, which they do not. Unfortunately, due to your little last minute team effort, entirely unintentional I am sure, you have strengthened this belief.”

Naruto was staring with wide eyes, Sakura’s hand still clamped over his mouth. Sasuke was about to speak, but Kakashi silenced him with a look, continuing, “I have _never_ passed a team, because none of the teams I have been assigned have acted as a team. This means when I was assigned you the council assumed I would fail you as well. They… _decided…_ to pass on the extremely strong suggestion that I pass you no matter your ability to work as a team.”

“They wanted you to _cheat_?” Sakura asked, aghast, but flushed at Sasuke’s withering look. Kakashi cut the boy a sharp glance even though he agreed with the sentiment.

“They wanted me to pass a sub-par team for no reason besides their fan-crushes on the idea of an Uchiha in the shinobi forces again,” Kakashi said bluntly.

Naruto was waving his hand in the air frantically and Kakashi sighed, “Yes Naruto?”

Sakura removed her hand as the boy burst, “But we _did_ pass, _dattebayo_! We worked as a team!”

“I know. But no one else does and no one else believes because that was an isolated coincidental incident. Your teamwork is deplorable.”

“Deplora-what?” Naruto asked, confusion clear.

“It sucks,” Kakashi said flatly.

“Well maybe if Sasuke-teme wasn’t such an arrogant asshole—“

“Well maybe if you weren’t such a _moron_ —“

“DON’T INSULT SASUKE-KUN—“

“Guess I’ll start on your eulogies then,” Kakashi cut in happily, “How’s ‘they died as they lived—in ignorance’.”

They all shut up and Kakashi took a moment to enjoy the silence, “Much better,” he said happily.

“Now I don’t like giving certain people the idea they can control the Hokage’s commands to his shinobi. It’s wrong, stupid and annoying.”

“Yeah! No one’s the boss of the Old Man!” Naruto shouted, Sakura slapping her hand over his mouth again.

“So I get to prove that you three can do teamwork and can do it _well_. Because if you don’t, the Council will think they can jerk us around as they please and you _will_ be torn apart by it,” Kakashi’s smile was a tooth filled thing that carried to his eye as predatory glee, sending a shiver down his student’s spines. “Welcome to hell, brats.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might make this a series of one-shots on the new Team 7, but I honestly have no idea how Kakashi is going to beat these three into a coherent whole to prove his point. Any ideas/requests?


	2. The H in Hell is for Hatake

“Right, so, here you go!” Kakashi beamed at the disgruntled genin, all of them glaring at him from where they were tied up in a clearing somewhere in the Forest of Death. “I’ll be back in a couple days. Don’t die now!”

**Day 3**

“These are edible, right Sakura-chan?” Naruto cheered, holding out a handful of plants to the grimacing girl. They’d been dropped off in this weird forest with giant monster bugs and animals two days ago with only what they’d had on them the day of their second meeting.

Sasuke had stormed off to find a way out, Sakura following him but getting waylaid by a giant centipede. Naruto had burst in screaming about how he was going to defend his precious Sakura-chan, killed the centipede by luck, and had (after some shouting) helped dress Sakura’s injuries with medicinal herbs she pointed out and fabric from his bright orange jacket.

“Yeah, those are good,” she frowned, taking the reeds, “I can strip off the rough dermis and we can eat the softer core. Between them and the pine-nut stash we found, we should be okay for today and tomorrow, especially with the stream.”

“Woohoo! You’re so smart Sakura-chan! How do you know all these things?” Naruto beamed at her and she groaned, “Can you be a little _quieter_ baka! We don’t need more of those giant bugs coming after us!”

“Oh, sorry,” he whispered exagerattedly, the sound probably carrying just as far. Sakura just sighed and slumped, wishing her Sasuke-kun had stuck around.

**Day 4**

“Sasuke-kun!”

“Hn.”

“Haha! Look whose stuck in a tree! How long you been stuck there asshole? Huh? Well guess what, _I_ saved Sakura-chan and we’ve had plenty of food! Jerk.”

“Stop insulting him baka!”

“Hey! He ditched you and didn’t try to help with the centipede thing! Why are you _defending_ him?”

“…Because he’s Sasuke-kun! Now get him down!”

“Tch, fine. Crazy woman.”

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!”

**Day 5**

“Gah! Why are you being so _stupid_?!”

“What are you talking about? I’m just patrolling!”

“Loudly enough anyone can hear you a mile away, baka.”

“SHUT UP TEME!”

“SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!”

“…”

“Naruto. Stop being so loud, we can hear you just fine, and so can anything else in the blasted forest. Sasuke, stop being so rude, he’s at least making an effort. If you don’t want to be with the group so bad, then just leave.”

 

Hiding in the trees above them (basically sitting there with a low-level genjutsu on, more for his own peace of mind than any worry over them actually detecting him) Kakashi was pleasantly surprised. Who’d have expected her to snap out of it so fast? Nothing like being abandoned to possible death by a love-interest to squash that particular fantasy.

**Day 6**

“I can’t take it anymore. Sakura! Seriously! _Eat the meat_.”

Naruto had found a group of bug-larvae he’d eaten before (in one of his more… adventurous escapades) and even had whined Sasuke into lighting a fire with a jutsu to cook them. Heck, Sasuke even found some herbs Sakura recognized as cooking seasonings, so they tasted great! Texture was a bit weird, but they were pretty good and _great_ with those reeds he kept finding everywhere!

And Sakura was just turning up her nose at it!

“It’s disgusting!”

“It’s _protein_!” Naruto nearly wailed, barely remembering to keep his voice somewhat down, “You can barely walk the whole day Sakura-chan! You have like, zero energy! _Eat it!_ ”

“Why are we walking?” Sasuke asked abruptly, looking up from his larvae-steak.

“To get the hell _out of –_ mmpfh!” Sakura began, before Naruto shoved a chunk of cooked larvae in her mouth, which she refused to spit out, so she glared mutely as she chewed.

“Yeah, but we have no idea where we’re supposed to be going to get out. This place goes on _forever_ ,” the Uchiha said, surprising them both with fully articulated sentences. “We should just find a water-source, like that river a day’s walk back, and walk along it till we find a securable area. Set up a base-camp or something.”

“Huh. That’s pretty smart, teme.”

“Says the class idiot.”

“Hey! Who got dinner? Huh? Don’t see you complaining about those pranks and adventures when you’re eating the rewards!”

**Day 7**

“We’re here!” Naruto beamed, Sakura mumbling from where she was draped over Naruto’s shoulder, having been exhausted after half a day’s walk. “Hey teme, we made it!”

“Yeah, I think someone in _Kumo_ didn’t hear you!” Sasuke growled, “It’s too muddy here. Let’s go further downstream and find someplace solid.”

“We could always just hide in trees, these things are huge!” Naruto pointed out.

“And we’ll climb them that high _how_ exactly?”

“Oh that’s easy! Just use your kunai!”

“…Huh.”

**Day 8**

Kakashi was pleasantly surprised. They were all alive. And not only that, they were reasonably codependent. Naruto and Sasuke had built a reasonable shelter, Sakura had been reasonably treated and was identifying edible and non-edible plants regularly, as well as having them collect medical herbs against future use. They seemed to have found some regular food sources, in larvae and fish. Good. Good progress for their first week.

Now for some actual training.

 

“UP AND AT ‘EM!” Kakashi roared, all of them jumping, the two sleeping genin squawking in shock as they jerked awake. He had already healed Sakura’s injuries as she was awake and on watch, the girl failing to alert them when she recognized him. He’d have to cure her of that, but for now it was convenient.

“Right. So. You lived. I’m pleasantly surprised,” he scowled down at them, “Now that you’ve shown you’re not _completely_ useless, I can proceed to demonstrate how inequitably useless you _are._ Sakura. Run from here to the river and back, then keep doing it until I say you can stop.”

She opened her mouth to object, but his glare silenced her and she mutely took off for the river again.

“Sasuke, climb that tree by pumping chakra into your feet and sticking. Too much, you blast off and blow holes in the tree. Too little, you fall. For every hole you put in that tree, you do twenty one handed push-ups.”

He didn’t even attempt to object, just going to stare at a tree as he figured out how he was going to do this.

“Naruto. Run through your taijutsu katas. They suck and I will fix them.”

 

By the time the sun rose, Sakura had dropped from exhaustion and only managed to weakly drag herself around the clearing to cool her muscles down, Sasuke had made it halfway up the tree and done so many push-ups his arms wouldn’t twitch without extreme effort, and Naruto had finally gotten the first two katas down in the correct form.

“Sakura,” Kakashi barked, the pink-haired girl jumping at his tone, and he smirked, “You get to practice stamina this time. Run as much as you can, every day. None of this carrying you nonsense that was going on this week. You walk there yourself or you _don’t get there_. Clear? Good.”

“Sasuke. You’d best be getting to the top of those trees by the next time I show up. And who knows? It might be tomorrow night. So get practicing.”

“Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke both know these katas. Sakura in technique, Sasuke in practice. By the time I get back, you’d best be able to run through the _entire_ academy sequence with no errors at full-speed. Again, it might be as soon as tomorrow.”

“Now, good work kids! You’re making progress!” Kakashi beamed before vanishing, leaving a gaping trio of genin in a slowly sunlit clearing.

He wasn’t a _complete_ asshole though. He did leave them some ration bars.

 

**Day 11**

“We are _so_ lucky Kakashi-sensei didn’t come back yet!” Sakura groaned as Naruto tangled his feet together and faceplanted running through the final kata, _again_.

“This clearly isn’t working,” Sasuke grunted, “Hey, _dobe_ , spar with me! I’ll use academy style too, maybe if you actually see how the proper style _works better_ than whatever the hell you’re doing, it’ll sink in.”

“And I’m next!” Sakura insisted, “Sparring’s a different way to train stamina, right?”

“Maybe you should try that tree thing Sasuke was doing,” Naruto recommended, “You’re really smart, maybe you’ll have some ideas how he can get higher, or I can even stick?”

“…Good idea,” she acknowledged reluctantly, going to stare at a tree for a while.

**Day 13**

“Huh. You did it!” Naruto cheered, “You got to the top! That’s awesome! _And_ I got through those katas!”

“At three-quarter speed,” Sakura refuted from her perch on a tree near Sasuke’s recent victory. “So go through them again, and faster! Then we’ll spar!”

“I’ll keep climbing this tree, make sure it’s not a once-off,” Sasuke stated, starting his slow walk back down, Sakura racing down easily to join Naruto on the ground.

Kakashi rubbed his hands together in glee, they were coming together nicely. What should he give them to chew on next?

**Day 15**

“So, you don’t suck _as_ badly anymore,” he informed the newly exhausted group after he tested them all on their recent progress (in all fields he’d assigned, naturally, as the lesson was teamwork). “Have some chocolate.”

“I love you!” Sakura blurted as she stared at the chocolate bar in her hand, before flushing brilliantly at the confused looks the boys shot her and glaring. They quickly turned back to their sensei and decided to not question it.

“Mah mah, you have very low standards Sakura-chan. Now. For the next sessions. Naruto – good job on the taijutsu. Keep practicing it in spars, your bad habits come through. The academy taijutsu is a good basis, we’ll develop one more suited to you from those building blocks later on. For now, that will have to do. Sasuke, good on the trees, nice initiative with the jumping and sparring on tree-branches though I suspect Naruto had more to do with that particular development. Keep it up and work on the next stage, which is walking on water. Similar principle. Have at it.”

“Sakura, keep working on your stamina and keep up the tree-walking and water-walking. They build up chakra reserves, and yours are pitiful.”

“You have three days to make significant progress. If I’m not satisfied, I sic one of those giant tigers on you. Clear?”

“CLEAR!”

**Day 18**

“Hmmm… adequate, I suppose,” Kakashi shrugged, all three slumping with relief at his declaration. “Keep at the water-walking, all of you. Naruto, good initiative on the traps. You get to teach these two a trap each, different for each one, and they have to set it independently before my next visit, which could be tomorrow, could be a few days. You decide what you’ll risk for time, because you also need to master water-walking to spar on it like Sakura and Sasuke, and straighten out the last bit of your taijutsu. Bye now!”

He was reasonably content with the fact it only took Naruto until that evening to figure out shadow-clones could teach too. When Sakura got frustrated with hers and dispelled it, Naruto fell through the water he was wobbling on and came up spluttering his own insults, which, after some amusing shouting and dramatic arm-waving, drew the three to the realization shadow-clones could relay information to their originator.

He even came up with more clones for water-walking himself. If he realized that they really helped in chakra control because of their nature as constructs of chakra or if he just thought learning was learning whatever worked remained to be seen, but he would count it as a win for this session.

Besides, Sakura and Sasuke didn’t set their traps yet. He’d visit tomorrow and get that tiger on them. They could use the encouragement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here's another installment - just some pieces... no promises on frequent updates for this, it's just sort of as the mood strikes.
> 
> Hope it's believable! :)


	3. Chapter 3

“Hatake?” Anko asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t you be monitoring your brats?”

“A clone is,” he waved off idly, cup of warm sake in hand. “Can’t stay out there all the time you know, it’s not like I am the one trying to be whipped into shape.”

She just snorted, knowing very well his personal training regimes were, while not quite on the order of Gai’s self-improvement efforts, quite demanding. “Well, you’re going to want to be attending to those kiddos personally, and soon,” she informed him, “Because we’ve got an escapee that was heading that way.”

“Escapee?” Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow, “An actual one or a hope-crushing gambit?”

“Actual, unfortunately,” Anko grimaced, “I’m about to head out and hunt, just wanted to give you a heads up.”

“Right – thanks Anko,” Kakashi shot back the rest of his sake, mourning its wasted quality as he tossed his payment onto the bar and vanished out the door. He wasn’t too concerned, his clone could at least delay things or lead the escapee away, but it wasn’t a good idea to just leave them out there unobserved with a threat like that in the offing. He wanted them to get their act together, not kill them. It’d been just about three weeks, they’d made decent progress and at least could tolerate each other, so he’d probably be pulling them out of the Forest soon and getting them onto a strict training regime.

Of course, the last time he’d designed a training regime it had been for introductory ANBU soldiers and re-integration training for long-term undercover agents, so he’d have to wait and see just what he could come up with for genin.

Meh, they’d live.

  ===***===pagebreak===***===

Naruto was terrified. He didn’t show it – he was good at that – but he was genuinely terrified. First they had passed, miracle of miracles, then Kakashi-sensei had told them that people, _powerful_ people, wanted them dead. He may not be the sharpest kunai in the drawer, but he knew that of the three of them, he was the one that was the most disposable. Sasuke was an Uchiha, the last one in the village, so he’d be a priority for the powerful people here.

Sakura, while from a civilian background, was the top of their class, and relations between shinobi and civilians could get rough so her being on a power team like this was a big bonus on that front.

Then there was him. Dead-last demon-container. If they got sent on missions that were just too hard for them, that they weren’t ready for, he’d be more likely to live because he could heal really fast. But if he survived a mission that killed Sakura-chan or, kami forbid, Sasuke-teme?

He didn’t think he’d last very long.

That didn’t even take into account their past weeks in this freaking awesomely-cool-yet-scary forest. He’d saved Sakura-chan from a giant centipede, for all the gratitude he got, and she’d been super smart and helped find edible plants so they wouldn’t be _too_ hungry (he missed ramen _so much_ ), but then Sasuke-teme had gotten stuck and he’d had to fish him out of a tree too. He’d only grudgingly admit this in his head, and never aloud, but the Uchiha was more use than Sakura-chan, edible plant knowledge or no.

Then randomly their oni of a sensei (but he’d at least been honest and was trying and Naruto really didn’t want to think about that too hard) showed up and started teaching them all something. Well, him and Sasuke something, he just made Sakura-chan run a lot (she needed it). And they’d managed to meet his requirements the first few times (by a miracle, really) which made Naruto wonder if their sensei was spying on them, to make sure they always _just_ passed and _just_ finished, so they’d always feel that pressure. He didn’t doubt that if they started slacking, the man would show up and they’d regret it forever.

So he’d taught them traps. He’d taught them traps, gotten good at water-walking, sent clones out to search for food and an exit now that he knew they could give him memories, and they might even impress sensei enough to get ramen – he’d brought chocolate, right? So there was some hope!

Sasuke and Sakura were both working at building traps around the campsite, though none of them really thought their sensei would get caught in them, it was worth a shot, right? Besides, they had been told they needed to learn, so learn they would. Anything to hopefully bribe their way out of here and to a shower, real bed, and ramen.

Man he needed to stop thinking about ramen, he was trying to do katas on water and needed his concentra – _knife to throat who the hell what just not Konoha not Konoha NOT KONOHA!_ – Naruto flailed in the water and spluttered, shouting in dismay before he managed to clench his jaw shut and scramble for shore. He needed to get to the others!

Sopping wet, he left his bright orange jacket (dirty and cut up for bandages as it was) on the shoreline and ran for the campsite. “Guys!” he called, trying to keep his voice down but needing to find them _fast_ , nearly shouting in relief when he spotted a head of pink hair building a foot-snare.

“Sakura-chan!” he hissed, the girl looking up and blinking at him, “Naruto?” she asked, “What’s wrong now?”

“One of my clones just got _slaughtered_ by some foreign nin,” Naruto hissed, wide-eyed, “Where’s Sasuke-teme, we need to arm the traps and get into some trees!”

If it were just him and Sasuke, he’d try and go for the foreign-nin, probably. He’d at least spam clones and send them after him, but with Sakura-chan here, and with them not having eaten or slept really well for a while, no new supplies forthcoming, it’d be better to hide and wait. If Kakashi-sensei was watching like he thought (knew, hoped, whatever) then he’d be here soon and they’d be able to just wait.

“Right,” she nodded, wide-eyed as well, quickly covering up her snare and darting over to where Sasuke and another clone were insulting each other over their work. “Shh!” she hissed, “There’s a foreign-nin in here that just killed Naruto’s clone! We need to hide!”

Sasuke just raised an eyebrow at Naruto, who nodded in confirmation, dread settling in his gut when he recognized that arrogant smirk. Shit, the teme thought he could go deal with this guy himself. Damn it, Naruto was tempted too but they couldn’t just _ditch_ Sakura to go find this guy, odds were they’d miss him and Sakura would face him alone!

“What direction is he coming from?” Sasuke demanded and Naruto narrowed his eyes before shaking his head, “Not telling you, teme. Not if you’re going after him.”

Sasuke glowered, snarling, “I need to see how much I’ve advanced! We’ve sparred, you’ve gotten better at least, you have those clones, we can take him!”

“We don’t even know who this guy is, he could be some ANBU type ninja, which we are totally not up for,” Naruto refuted, unable to believe that this was coming out of his mouth but knowing he had to convince Sasuke this was a _stupid_ idea. No one could go off by themselves, they had no idea where this guy was now because it was doubtful that he’d stayed where he’d killed Naruto’s clone, and they had enough threats on their lives without seeking out a _new one_ when they totally _weren’t ready_.

“Fine then! I’ll find him _myself!_ You _coward_!” Sasuke spat, turning on his heel and sprinting off, Sakura crying, “Sasuke-kun! Wait!” but not running after him.

Naruto swore, and nodded to his clone, who took off after him. That one would at least try and persuade him and if that didn’t work, try knocking him out. He needed to stay with Sakura and get her settled and hidden, then maybe he could risk going after that arrogant asshole.

“Come on Sakura, let’s get to the hide,” Naruto said shortly, reaching for her arm, but Sakura spun around and _glared_ at him, “No!” she said passionately, “We’re going after Sasuke-kun!”

“Why?” Naruto glared back, frustration at his crush’s inexplicable affection for an asshole who would barely give her the time of day finally boiling over, “Why are you so _loyal_ to him? He thinks you’re an annoying, useless, weakling who’s holding him back! He thinks _everyone_ is an annoying weakling who’s holding him back! I teach him about traps, about stealth, hunt for food, and he calls me dobe, he calls me weak and useless! What do you think he thinks about _you_ Sakura-chan? Huh?”

“We go after him, and we get _killed_ ,” Naruto frowned, crossing his arms and glaring at his feet, “I don’t want you dying here.”

“Well it’s _my_ life, and we’re supposed to be a team!” Sakura glared back at him, bright red, “We _are_ a team, so we’re going after him! Even if he doesn’t think we’re a team, we are! So let’s _go_!”

Naruto wavered, before slumping and agreeing quietly. What did it, honestly? She said ‘we’. He was part of the team too. Personally, he doubted she’d be so ardent about going after _him_ if _he’d_ been the one to run off, but with that ‘we’ floating out there, he could at least pretend.

Following after her (if she set the pace, it’d take longer to get there, which was all to the good in his opinion) he glanced up at the trees worriedly and anxiously awaited a bursting clone. Hopefully sensei really was watching all this time, they could really use the help.

  ===***===pagebreak===***===

Kakashi was flying across the roofs, nearly at the Forest of Death. He’d left two clones in the Forest in case one dispelled on accident, and one had dispelled itself after the three _idiots_ decided to go after an unknown-strength foreign-nin who’d already ‘killed’ one of their own. He’d been told Sasuke was _sensible_ , was a _prodigy_ but this was absolute _stupidity_. Naruto had been the voice of reason, of all people, and had only agreed to go after him when Sakura had made a somewhat impassioned speech about teamwork. He was glad they had at least gotten that piece down (though if they’d have done the same had _Naruto_ run off remained to be seen) but Sasuke was going to have this arrogance _beat out of him_ if it was the _only_ and _last_ thing he learned.

Leaving them to their own devices seemed to have gotten as far as it could. When this was over – _if_ they survived and Sasuke had some sense beat into him – he’d be getting them out of the forest and having them report for the training regimen of their worst _nightmares_ the following morning those little _brats_.

He finally hit the Forest of Death, heading straight for where his clone had a tracking seal in its pocket, hoping that the kids were still far away from the escapee, when memories hit. He expertly sorted through them and swore aloud, sending another burst of chakra into his legs and accelerating to nigh-unbelievable speeds. They’d actually managed to _find_ the asshole.

Sasuke had gotten there first, the Naruto clone following him staying out of the way until the idiot genin was almost skewered, where the more sensible clone jumped in to try and interfere or at least buy some time. The clone was dispelled rather quickly, but before clone-Kakashi could jump down and deal with it, Sakura and Naruto-the-real-one burst into the clearing and Sakura didn’t even think, flying for Sasuke with a cry while Naruto at least focused on the _important part_ of the entire thing.

The dead-last was the one he had to work with the least, how was that even possible?

Sasuke shoved Sakura off with glares and grumbles, launching into the fray with Naruto, the pair exhibiting good instinctive double-teaming but not up to a jounin-level opponent even after the loving care of T&I. Didn’t help that Sakura was just _standing there_ , sure, a kunai in hand, but she looked about as useful as a helpless damsel in some television drama. It’d be a great way to lure people in, if it weren’t actually _the truth_.

At this point Kakashi-clone intervened, deflecting a shuriken heading for a hopelessly slow (and out of breath, seriously?) Sakura before involving himself in the fight. He’d at least managed to fend the man off and give him pause when Sasuke was tossed his way and he could either dodge (and let him break a leg with how the kid was failing to correct his fall) or get dispelled.

The clone dispelled, and Naruto was now fighting alone. Shit.

Kakashi, unlike his idiot students, knew the value of intelligence, so paused, dropped down from his tree and suppressed his chakra. He had trained with Gai in chakra-suppressed subterfuge and shinobi arts after the man had managed to actually sneak up on him some years ago, so he would be fine and the advantage would be worth the inconvenience.

He quickly reached the forcibly cleared area and paused, light genjutsu keeping them from noticing him and assessed the situation meaningfully in moments.

It was shit. Sakura was being held by the escapee, the man’s shaking hands holding a kunai to her throat, a deep gash on her face and tears leaking out of her eyes. Sasuke and Naruto were both standing there, both deeply shaken and Naruto, at least, visibly furious.

“Throw down your weapons, little genin,” the man taunted, Kakashi recognizing him as an Iwa infiltrator brought in three weeks ago from Otafaku Gai. Lovely, this was just getting _better_.

Both boys hesitated, but reluctantly obeyed and Kakashi at least felt somewhat proud of them. They were still utterly screwed once he got them out of this. He quickly drifted around so he was in the Iwa-nin’s blind spot, finding one of Naruto’s clones lurking in a bush while he was there. Tapping the clone by the shoulder, he nodded shortly at the clone’s relieved look and handed a treasured old, never-used kunai to him. With quick, overly obvious hand-signs (efficient sign-language, now on the list) he indicated the clone was to throw it into the ground at the enemy-nin’s feet to distract him on Kakashi’s signal. The clone nodded and crept around a bit so he was still in sight but had an angle for that kind of shot.

Kakashi flexed his hands thoughtfully, listening to taunts and shaken demands before nodding sharply and shooting forward, kunai landing in front of the Iwa-nin who had just enough time to shout in alarm when – _crack_ – he was dead, neck snapped and Sakura shoving the arm away and stepping away, shuddering as she stared between Kakashi and the dead shinobi in shock.

Naruto got a distant look on his face before stepping forward and picking up the decoy kunai, Kakashi unable to entirely ignore the pang at seeing him blankly pick up a sealed kunai he should have recognized, he should have _known_. “Here Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto said, cleaning the kunai and handing it back, Kakashi accepting it with a nod and looking the three over. Sakura was shaking in shock, cut across her left eye still bleeding but her gaze tracked his motion so at least her eye itself wasn’t damaged, skittering off her skull he would guess.

Sasuke was pale but sullen, fists clenched at his side and standing at a rough approximation of attention, bruises blossoming and scrapes oozing drops of blood. Naruto had some bruising and scrapes but they were already fading, Kakashi watching with some jealousy. Bloody Uzumaki constitution was good enough as it was, add in the fox’s regenerative capabilities and it just wasn’t fair.

“The three of you, are quite possibly the _luckiest_ _morons_ I have ever had the displeasure of working with,” Kakashi said lowly, dangerously. Naruto looked mulish, probably resenting it when he’d actually tried to be sensible, he’d have to correct that, but the genin didn’t say anything (the boy was a fast learner outside the classroom, it seemed).

Sasuke, his little genius, actually tried to argue. He _actually tried to object_. That arrogant little shit, who the hell had been fluffing his ego so damn much? Oh, that’s right, _everyone_. This was going to be a _fun_ lesson to teach.

Not even listening, he blurred forward and grabbed him by the back of his shirt, lifting him off his feet and _shaking_ him. A punch would have been nice, but he didn’t know how badly he’d actually been injured and worsening cracked ribs would not put him into anyone’s good books. The genin shut up, shocked, and Kakashi tossed him away, Sasuke rolling and scrambling back to his feet, Kakashi flaring his killing intent to keep him quiet.

“Shut up,” he whispered, voice still carrying clearly in the clearing, “You are a _disgrace_. Your teammate tells you a threat of unknown strength, clearly more than capable of taking out one of your teammates, even in less-than-solid form, and you decided to _test yourself_? Oh yes,” he nodded at Sasuke’s startled look, barely there but too obvious for him, “I heard all of that. Wanted to _test your capacity_ hmm?”

Sasuke blanched, swaying at the somewhat cruel reference but Kakashi couldn’t bring himself to care. This little shit had nearly gotten his teammates killed because he was an _idiot_. He deserved every bit of it right now, and needed to realize just what the hell he had almost done.

“Naruto, escort your teammate to your camp and wait there for me to collect you,” Kakashi ordered the orange-wearing genin, who nodded with a hesitant glance at Sakura, who was still shaking.

Kakashi stepped over to her and scooped her up into his arms, the pink-haired girl curling into his chest and shuddering, tears running down her face still. He almost sighed, comforting was _not_ a particular talent of his, but she seemed willing to take what little he could manage. “I will be taking Sakura-chan to the hospital. Once she is settled I will come back for you.”

Naruto nodded at that, clearly relieved, and Kakashi took off, trusting them to at least not be complete morons. He’d have to report the Iwa-nin’s death when he got there too, but that shouldn’t take more than a few moments. If he was feeling particularly generous, he wouldn’t mention Sasuke’s moronic move in the written report and make the entire thing sound like an accident. The Sandaime would hear the truth, of course. He’d probably be rather pleased with Naruto’s progress.

  ===***===pagebreak===***===

Sakura was _furious_. Sensei had rescued her, and the boys had tried, but she’d been utterly _useless_. By the time the medics got to her, she’d managed to stop crying and sensei even _stayed_ with her, sending a clone off to report the death of that foreign-nin and then collect the boys. The sympathetic nurse helped clean her face of all the blood and a medic-nin came by and said quietly that he’d be able to heal it, but there would be a scar. It was just too ragged of a cut.

She only nodded, still internally fuming. Inner Sakura was ranting and raving and _screaming_ about how useless she’d been, about how _helpless_ she’d been. What good was being the top kunoichi if all she could do was stand there and shake and cry and look pretty? What good was working for Sasuke-kun if she probably wouldn’t even live through being on a team with him?

“Sensei?” she asked finally, looking up after the medic-nin had left to fetch some cream that would at least help with the scar before letting her go. The silver-haired man looked up from where he was sitting in one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs, reading his orange book, and tilted his head to the side in mute question.

“Do you think – I could use a genjutsu?” she asked, waving a hand at her face and biting her lip at his raised eyebrow, elaborating, “My parents – I – I don’t want them to be upset. And we were just _training_ if I can just keep it up until we have a mission then – I mean. They won’t be too angry.”

“While I do think you have the chakra control necessary for a genjutsu, you don’t have the reserves for such a long-term one. It’s going to be a _long_ time before you three go on a mission where you could conceivably get a scar.”

She still stared at him stubbornly, before lowering her gaze to her hands. Her sensei sighed and said, “I can teach it to you, on the understanding that if your parents find out, you are responsible for this and I advised against it. In fact, I will disown teaching you the genjutsu and say I thought you had informed them of the incident and even told them to feel free to contact me. Understood?”

Sakura nodded, looking up at him hopefully and eagerly listening to his basic explanation of genjutsu in general and the one she would be applying – a less extensive and longer lasting _henge_ – in particular. She could tell that if she went through with this and it didn’t work, and her parents did find out, she’d be in even bigger trouble, but she had to try. She _had to_.

Besides, if she did this, and made it last, that would make her chakra reserves bigger, right? It would be good practice, and she needed to get better.

 ===***===pagebreak===***===

Kakashi watched his female genin out of the corner of his eye as they made their way to Naruto’s apartment. His clone had reported the death and given a basic outline of what had happened, but had requested the evening to go over things with his genin and been granted it. Fetching Naruto and Sasuke, who had been sullenly glaring at each other in their campsite, he called team-meeting and Naruto offered his place with only mild urging. Kakashi didn’t want any of these brats knowing where he lived just yet, that was for certain.

Sakura was a bit of a surprise. Apparently what he’d mistaken for shock and terror was that, yes, but also with a more-than-usual dose of self-directed rage. Her initiative with the genjutsu was a pleasant surprise. It was currently on and making it appear she hadn’t been injured at all, though she still looked tired and dirty; that was the difference between this one and henge, it didn’t change her whole appearance, just taking a fragment to illusion and letting the otherwise natural looks seep through.

It wasn’t used too often, but Kakashi was probably the one who used it most. Making his eyes match and changing his hair color was much less chakra-intensive and a ridiculously effective disguise.

It’d be interesting if she actually managed to ration her genjutsu use appropriately to keep it from her parents. He probably wasn’t supposed to encourage deception from parents but he was a shinobi, lies were what he did, and besides that, he agreed with her. Their pretty little daughter coming home scarred for life from training was not exactly something they would be happy about. Not that they could do anything, until she served for six years she was stuck. It was in the contract of the academy, and she’d both graduated and passed his test so there was no way out for her.

On one level, he felt a little bad for those who got into this sort of position and were truly unsuited for shinobi life. On another, he didn’t really care all that much because they had signed on for it, and six year olds were perfectly capable of making life-changing decisions. He’d done that and more at the same age, after all. They had to take responsibility for their agreements.

They reached Naruto’s apartment and he sighed. He’d worked with Naruto as a guard before, but seeing the boy live in this apartment complex by himself, when he clearly _wasn’t_ ready for it, as even he would now admit he hadn’t been at the age Naruto started, had been painful. Was painful, really, especially with how much potential he was finding the boy had if someone had just _taught_ him. All of them had potential, but Naruto’s was just easier for him to see and plan around. And honestly appeared to need less work to draw out – bit of attention, some basic guidance, and a looming threat – done. The other two… well. It would depend on how long this initiative of Sakura’s last.

Sasuke though – oh yes. He would take quite a bit of work indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge shout-out to Balos, whose ideas on Sakura gave me the inspiration for this chapter - seriously surprised I actually am updating this within reasonable timescales.
> 
> Hope the characterizations were believable - really worried about Naruto. I think it's reasonable that a threat of immediate death based on politics (especially RIGHT AFTER finding out about the Kyuubi) would serve as the wake-up call he needed to stop TOTALLY screwing around.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to gwenhyfer, who pointed out some trouble with my Sasuke characterization and let me bounce ideas off her :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

“Sakura!” Naruto clearly looked relieved as he opened the door for them, Sasuke sitting at the table with a half-eaten bowl of instant ramen in front of him, Naruto’s chair indicated by the impressive stack of empty ramen cups. “Do you want any ramen? Tea?”

“Both, please,” Sakura replied immediately, apparently deciding that the idea of _real food_ (Kakashi scoffed mentally, ramen was decent enough, but much less nutritious than what they’d been eating in the forest) was worth being polite for.

“Sensei?” Naruto asked, Kakashi shutting the door behind them and adding a security jutsu almost absent-mindedly. “Tea, please, Naruto-kun,” he replied, taking a seat across from Sasuke, who refused to meet his eyes and instead glared at his ramen cup.

Kakashi let the silence rest, until Naruto came back with their ramen and tea, taking his own seat with yet another cup of ramen. It wasn’t until Sakura had started eating that Kakashi finally spoke, saying flatly, “Explain.”

Sasuke’s shoulders tensed – he would say _hunched_ , but the Uchiha remembered enough of his clans stoicism to refrain from being that clearly defensive – and he replied stiffly, “I was trying to improve our teamwork and get us out of the forest faster.”

_Fuck. That made sense_ , Kakashi realized, face and body-language giving nothing of his surprise away. Mentally reviewing what he had observed personally and witnessed through his clones, that fit rather well with the assessment he had of Sasuke at this stage. He was still confident enough in his position as top-dog within the genin hierarchy of their team to not feel threatened to the point of affirming his authority with a stupid stunt, it was one of the reasons Kakashi had been so _angry_ at Sasuke’s decision. He hadn’t expected anything like this until one of the others showed significant progress and risked challenging Sasuke’s position.

“How the fuck was _that_ going to improve our teamwork?!” Naruto demanded, Sakura scolding him for language (she was ignored).

“Kakashi-sensei did the same thing!” Sasuke snapped back, “Setting us against a superior opponent and forcing us to rely on one another to defeat them! It was the only time we actually worked together, even this whole time in the Forest we only worked together when he forced us to with threats! I thought if we proved we could work together to take down an opponent we would prove we’d learned our lesson and get out of the forest faster!”

He clearly hesitated before continuing reluctantly, “I also assumed that Kakashi-sensei had actually sent the foreign-nin into our sphere of influence as a test and I didn’t want to fail.”

_…Fuck._ He actually would do something like that too, if not with an actual escaped prisoner, Kakashi reluctantly admitted, almost ruefully amused, since the consequences of this misunderstanding had been so relatively mild. He had a hell of a lot to learn about being a sensei it seemed, because while they had managed to work together (and in such a way he could easily list the prisoner death as a genin-team effort and provide some proof positive that he wasn’t obeying the council) this level of miscommunication was not something that could continue.

“And you couldn’t have _said_ something?” Sakura demanded, Naruto agreeing and adding, “Kakashi-sensei was observing the whole time, probably. If you’d _said_ something he could have stopped us and said it wasn’t some weird stupid test!”

Before the argument could erupt and make this situation worse, Kakashi interrupted and said calmly, “It appears, then, that I owe you all an apology.”

All three genin silenced at that and turned to look at him, Naruto at least going gratifyingly bug-eyed at his now empty tea-cup.

“Naruto,” he started, looking over at him, “First, I wanted to acknowledge that you had the right idea, taking your teammates and going to ground and waiting for orders. It is not a move I expected you to make at this point in time, so it is a very good sign. Well done.”

Naruto blinked at him for a few moments before giving a small, brilliant smile at the acknowledgement that Kakashi took heart in even while cursing the laws that kept his tongue tied with his sensei’s son. Turning next to Sasuke, he continued, “To you, Sasuke, I must first apologize for not hearing you out immediately after the incident was concluded. I can only offer that I was stressed, angry, and worried for your and your teammates’ safety and health.”

The Uchiha heir paused briefly before acknowledging the apology with a short nod. Kakashi made a mental note to keep an eye on him because this would be a potential source of bitterness (damn and blast the Sandaime was going to be _pissed_ ).

Finally he turned to Sakura and said, “For you Sakura, I can only offer a blanket apology that my clones did not interfere immediately when you all took off for the shinobi. It was deemed unlikely all three of you would stop without the clone dispelling, leaving you with no back-up whatsoever until I got there with no means of easily finding you.”

He made a mental note to give them tracking seals, he should have thought of that sooner.

Turning so he could capture all three of them in his limited field of vision, he said, “Now, so that this will not happen again. I will _never_ unexpectedly set you against a foreign ninja within Konoha. If you are encountered by a foreign-nin with hostile intent in Konoha itself, immediately assume they are truly _hostile_ and determine the appropriate course of action from there, the end goal at this stage in your training being your own survival.”

There, that should clear the air somewhat. Now for the next piece, which was difficult for him to admit to them but they needed to hear.

“Also, you three need to realize that I did not pass any genin team before you, not only because they were not acting as a team, but because I did not want to be a sensei,” he said bluntly, “I did not, and do not, think that I would be the best sensei. I am considered something of a genius myself, I am not particularly good at explaining things which I find nearly instinctive. I was assigned students repeatedly in the hopes that I would pass on my talents and abilities, which I would not mind doing, but not to genin. Few of my techniques and tactics are appropriate for genin-level shinobi and none are appropriate for students straight out of the Academy. Of the teams which I failed, three have passed other sensei’s exam and are doing rather well.”

He wanted to grit his teeth around this last secret, this last fact, but knew that if it came to light in some other way, the potential bitterness in Sasuke would explode forward and he’d never get the boy back.

The genin, at least, did not interrupt and waited the few moments it took him to come to terms with so blatantly stating his shortcomings as a sensei.

“The last person I taught in any formal manner was Uchiha Itachi,” he finally said, watching Sasuke carefully as he said this and unsurprised when the boy went completely rigid, staring at him with wide, almost hurt eyes, “It has… somewhat ruined me, for teaching anyone, after what he did with my teachings.”

“Err…” Naruto said into the silence that had fallen, “Not to be – uh – stupid, or anything, but… who’s Uchiha Itachi? Besides a relative of Sasuke, I mean. That’s kind of obvious.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Sasuke, indicating that it was up to him to answer. He didn’t think the boy would react well to Kakashi handing out secrets he’d held close to his chest, and he needed to get the Uchiha to at least somewhat trust him again after he’d apparently completely botched this entire affair.

Maybe he could get a clone to report to the Sandaime?

“…He is my brother,” Sasuke admitted reluctantly, “And he killed my family.”

“What an asshole. He the guy you want to kill?” Naruto said immediately, Sasuke nodding shortly, entire body tense.

“Well we’ll help if we can,” Naruto promised, turning to Sakura and asking, “Right Sakura-chan?”

“Right,” Sakura said, voice surprisingly firm as she spoke directly to her crush, before turning to look up at Kakashi and saying, “And we’ll tell you if we don’t get something, sensei. And we can help explain things to each other – I helped these guys with the tree-climbing exercise, and Sasuke was really good at explaining taijutsu to Naruto, and Naruto taught us traps. We can teach each other too. And you’re not a bad sensei, you taught me that genjutsu really fast!”

“Genjutsu?” both boys perked up, eyeing Sakura curiously, “What genjutsu?” Naruto asked.

Sakura hesitated before nodding determinedly and dropping the jutsu, both boys blanching at the blatant scar crossing her face. “Sakura-chan!” Naruto cried, truly distressed, but apparently unable to think of anything to say.

“…Sorry,” Sasuke mumbled, Kakashi counting that as a definite win. Even if Sasuke hadn’t been the moron he’d thought initially, he at least acknowledged that his plan had consequences and not the type he’d wanted, and was willing to accept responsibility for them.

“It’s okay, Sasuke-kun, Naruto,” Sakura raised her chin, continuing, “The genjutsu’s just until we get a mission out of the village. I didn’t want my parents to know I’d gotten permanently scarred while in _training_.”

“Right,” Kakashi finally said, dragging the conversation back on track, “So. I will report this encounter as a successful team-mission for Team 7. That should give us some breathing room with the council, but the threat is by no means over. You will report to training ground 7 tomorrow at six. When I arrive later, I expect you to have warmed up, worked on what you learned in the forest, and worked out at least one team attack strategy for the Iwa shinobi.”

He waited for them to nod before continuing, “Then, we will do team training until lunch. During lunch, expect a theory lecture of some sort. You will be expected to intelligently discuss the topic after we conclude the afternoon’s D-rank missions, which are little more than glorified chores. In the ones which allow for conversation, you can discuss and debate those topics depending on appropriateness in preparation for the concluding discussion. Any questions?”

They all exchanged looks, before Sasuke spoke up, “Not right now sensei. Can we ask tomorrow?”

“You can always ask me questions, on anything. However, you will need to accept that some answers will be along the lines of ‘classified’, and even ‘I don’t want to tell you’. Understood?”

“Yes sensei,” they chorused. Kakashi was satisfied. With any luck, this policy of frank discussion of reality would keep the team grounded and united, and prevent misunderstandings of the sort that had started this whole mess.

“Good. Sakura, Sasuke, I or my clone will escort you home,” he informed them, nodding to Naruto, “Naruto, have a good night, and I will see you tomorrow morning.”

“See you then, sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme,” Naruto replied, light tone on the insult echoed in Sasuke’s smirking nod and returned, “Dobe.”

Kakashi was tempted to roll his eye, but refrained and simply created a shadow clone, that clone accompanying Sakura, recently applied genjutsu and all, to her parent’s home, while he decided to escort Sasuke personally. He needed to give the boy a chance to respond to what had happened without his teammates as witnesses and even though shadow clones really were perfect reflections, people still had a tendency to prefer to talk to the ‘real’ person.

They had made it back to the Uchiha compound itself when Sasuke finally spoke, “Sensei, did you really train Itachi?”

“He was my subordinate in ANBU,” Kakashi replied, knowing that Sasuke had known of Itachi’s position within the elite unit and that his own presence in the group was something of an open secret within the shinobi forces of Konoha. “He was then promoted at my recommendation and my colleague. We frequently worked together.”

He decided to keep firmly behind his teeth any and all of his suspicions and doubts regarding the massacre. He had been on a long-term undercover mission for a few months leading up to and after the massacre, so he couldn’t say if something had changed and caused the relatively balanced and endlessly loyal Itachi to snap, but something in his gut told him that there was more to it. But not enough to bring anything up to the understandably traumatized and deeply involved Sasuke.

“Do you think I will ever be able to kill him?” Sasuke finally asked, very obviously having to force himself to admit to any doubts as to his ability to accomplish his goal.

Kakashi crouched down next to him, the pair of them now standing in front of the house Sasuke used as his primary residence in the depressing place, before saying firmly, “Yes. It will take time. Time and a lot of work. Itachi is brilliant and he will not have stopped strengthening himself in the years before you meet again. You will have to catch up to him at a truly ridiculous rate if you want to beat him alone. But if you accept the help that Naruto and Sakura offered you, if you accept the help _I_ offer you, as someone who failed to see the signs and was also betrayed by him, then the time can be cut down and the odds in your favor be improved.”

Sasuke’s jaw tightened and he looked away, Kakashi resting a hand on the boy’s shoulder and saying, “Think about it.”

He rose to his full height and started to walk away before remembering something he had forgotten to apologize for, and truly regretted now, “Sasuke,” he said, turning and catching the boy just before he opened his door, the genin clearly shocked at the deep bow Kakashi offered him, “I apologize for throwing that man’s words in your face. I misread the situation and hurt you for it.”

“…Thank you, sensei,” Sasuke whispered, returning the bow shortly and finally retreating to his home. Kakashi straightened and briefly debated leaving a clone or summon behind to monitor the situation, before deciding that it would violate his student’s privacy too much this early in the game, and leaving to his own home to finish outlining a training plan for the next few days.

And to develop an injury-minimizing strategy for explaining his failure to the Sandaime.


	5. C-rank

“We’re gonna die,” Naruto groaned, collapsing onto the grass in their training grounds. Sakura braced herself on her knees, panting heavily as she nodded in agreement. Sasuke merely grunted, dropping to sit on the ground, sweat dripping down his face.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Kakashi chided, internally cackling at the way the three twitched away from him, Naruto whimpering something about mercy and ramen’s salvation (he wasn’t going to ask). “I’d never kill you. There’s no profit in that. Now, get up and start stretching. You may leave here sore, but if you leave here stiff… I’ll make you do twice as much tomorrow.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, even Sasuke whimpered at that one, before Sakura helped the boys upright and they started their cool-down routine. A well-oiled and practiced one by now, one week after the Forest of Death fiasco.

He’d shown up at nine o’clock the day after their team meeting, as promised, to find they had followed his orders admirably and Sakura had gone above and beyond the ongoing team-building requirement by bringing extra bentos for the boys, who were obviously… ill-practiced, at proper nutrition. Sasuke at least tried, but his diet still left something to be desired.

The less said about Naruto’s, the better.

Their strategies for the Iwa-nin were… interesting. They had a plausible one worked out by the time he got there, a few outlandish ones that presupposed a lot of things, but – and here was the important part – none that worked without all three of them participating at their _current skill level_. No random power-ups or over-estimated skills here – they were each brutally honest about their own and each others’ skill set.

That sort of honesty was worth its weight in gold for any shinobi, for them to have developed it this early was fantastic.

Well worth the… conversation, he’d had with the Sandaime that morning. Brutal honesty had saved him there too, after all.

With that honest assessment in hand, he was able to design individualized training incorporated into the team-building exercises he had planned and they _didn’t argue_ about it. Oh sure, they complained, everyone did at these things, but they _did it_. Once he explained what each exercise was designed to overcome or compensate for, they had no objections at all and even asked for ways to make each exercise more challenging once they’d progressed far enough.

He was glad he had given that Iwa-nin a quick death. By now, it was obvious he’d earned it.

“All right, lunch!” he called, the three completing their current exercise before coming back and gratefully taking the calorie packed lunches he’d brought them. That had quickly become a routine once he’d noticed the lunches Sasuke and Naruto brought the second day – Sakura was doing better, but still had a tendency to under-eat – and after the first day he’d brought them, they even agreed to set aside one D-rank per day to fund his food-buying purchases.

So courteous!

“Questions?” he asked after flash-eating half of his lunch. It had only taken four days for them to stop with the attempts to see under his mask while they ate (courtesy some pointed comments about privacy between comrades), but there was no reason to be complacent.

“How many more of these D-ranks do we have to do, sensei?” Sasuke asked, Naruto and Sakura perking up.

“Until what?” Kakashi asked, enjoying their frustrated exchange of glances. He knew what they were after (they still hadn’t found his clone observer under genjustu every morning) but wanted them to spell it out. Looking omnipotent was all well and good, but not if they ever managed to actually hide something from him only to assume he already knew about it.

“Until we can do a C-rank!” Sakura burst. She was much less passive now, and was more free with her blows to the head (the face Sasuke had made when she brained him on day three – _priceless_ ), even though she’d pulled back with Naruto (another pointed comment, they were marvelous at picking up hints), as well as her opinions. “Ino-buta-chan is – “

“First,” Kakashi interrupted, holding up a finger, “Nickname. Reasoning. Now.”

“Umm…” she blushed, cutting a glance to Sasuke before she straightened her shoulders and reported, “We were best friends, until we decided that we would be romantic rivals for Sasuke’s attention and then the nicknames started. She calls me Forehead, I call her Ino-pig.”

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow and stared, before turning to Sasuke, newly sullen, and asking mildly, “Sasuke. Your opinion?”

“Stupid,” Sasuke replied shortly, “We’re twelve. I’m not going to be looking for a romantic partner for years. So instead you throw away a solid friendship for a stupid crush? And then ruin your chances as a shinobi for it?”

“Yeah, what was with the hair thing?” Naruto wrinkled his nose, “Where did you guys get the idea that Sasuke-teme liked long hair? I mean – maybe he does, but that seems weird.”

“They stalked me. And spread rumors. And stalked me more,” Sasuke replied flatly, before sounding almost _insulted_ as he continued, “And they weren’t even very good at it.”

“Sakura?” Kakashi asked, stopping the boys with another gesture.

She was horribly red, scar standing out starkly white against her skin, but she managed to say, “I know. And I don’t – it’s not my focus anymore. I’ll stop with the nickname sensei.”

“Mah, no need for that, if it’s truly a nickname,” Kakashi waved it off, relaxing his posture slightly and watching as all the genin echoed it. Unconscious echoing, now, but a good sign for the future. “Affection born nicknames can bring greater unity and a sense of comradeship – but insulting names, when not underscored by amiability as in the case of these two – alienate people. One person, to one team – “

“To one village,” they all chorused, Sasuke and Sakura rolling their eyes, while Naruto looked dead serious, as he had since the first time Kakashi had uttered that mantra. Ah well, they’d get it eventually.

They’d better.

“I guess… I don’t know, if it’s amiable,” Sakura said thoughtfully, before shrugging, “So I’ll stop and talk to Ino about it. Anyway. Ino was bragging the other day that her sensei was going to get them a C-rank because they were just doing _so_ brilliantly and it was such a shame that Sasuke-kun had me and Naruto-baka – her words! – to drag him down.”

Naruto shrugged at the relayed insult, Sasuke grunting again, neither surprised. She’d told them all about it this morning after all, and Naruto – surprise, surprise – had made the connection for their next point.

“So we were thinking, Kakashi-sensei, that we need to do one soon too. I remember Shika complaining about how he’d end up with Ino and Chouji – didn’t mind Chouji, but Ino he wasn’t looking forward to – because everyone thought they were clones of their dads and their teamwork was supposed to be awesome,” Naruto picked up the verbal baton, far calmer and more articulate with daily doses of positive reinforcement from Kakashi and non-hostile, even friendly, banter with his teammates. Ah, the sweet sound of success.

“And we’re supposed to be better,” Sasuke said shortly. It was adorable the way they designed their arguments so he had to say the least amount possible.

“Sound logic,” Kakashi said after a few moments silence to let them sweat, “Now for my response.”

He leaned forward slightly and they again echoed him, becoming intently focused on his words.

“You are not ready.”

“What?! But sensei - !”

“We have to do one - !”

“But we’re doing one anyway,” Sasuke said over the other two’s exclamations, dark eyes watching Kakashi carefully. “We have to, to prove we have the best teamwork.”

“Exactly,” Kakashi straightened, wanting each of them to _listen_ to this part, “You are _not_ ready. I’ve spoken with the other sensei and their students aren’t ready either, but there’s a certain… cachet, in being the first to take a team out on a C-rank, and they want it. The three new teams this year have equally new sensei, and they’re all out to prove something to each other.”

“Are you?” Sakura asked, before answering herself, “No, sorry. You have a different audience, right? The council?”

Kakashi nodded, pleased she’d figured that out herself, “Precisely. So we have to do better than them, _especially_ better than the team already rumored to have magnificent teamwork by genetics. Recommendations for preparation, one each, one minute, go.”

They all fell silent, finishing their food while they thought over the problem, Kakashi wolfing down the last bit of his own and reading a few paragraphs before their time was up. “Naruto, you’re up,” he said, looking over the rim of his book at the boy.

The blonde, wearing a dark blue shirt with his orange pants (those would have to go before the mission), straightened to an approximation of sitting attention and said, “There are standard C-rank types, I think – protection for people, messenger duty – things like that. Could we request a specific type and then develop scenarios to work through, maybe? Just so we get some ideas as to what we can do in response to specific situations?”

“Hmm. Sasuke, your turn.”

“Shadow clones,” Sasuke said bluntly, “Naruto can spam them, but that means he’s the only one who gets alerted when one dispels. If Sakura and I could even make one, that’d be useful.”

“And Sakura?”

“One new skill each,” she said promptly, “I’ve been looking at field medicine, Naruto has tons of chakra, maybe he could learn a power move or something more draining that’s useful. Sasuke is the fastest of us with taijutsu right now, so maybe he could add some weapons into that?”

Kakashi let the three of them have a moment to digest one another’s responses before he said, “Good ideas, some problems. First, no we can’t request a specific type, Naruto. Second, neither you nor Sakura have the chakra capacity for one shadow clone yet. If you keep training like we have been, it should increase enough for one in a month, in your case, Sasuke, while Sakura, I’m honestly not sure, your rate of growth on your chakra capacity has been fluctuating too much for me to judge accurately. Finally, iryo-jutsu require finer chakra control then you have now, Sakura; if you are interested, I can get you some extra control exercises and a basic jutsu scroll. For the other two suggestions in yours, good ideas but again, difficult to implement in a few days.”

“I would be interested,” Sakura replied and he nodded, making a mental note to deal with that while they were doing D-ranks.

“So here is what we are going to do,” Kakashi said, “I am going to outline a scenario for each of you to think about during today’s D-ranks. We’ll discuss and dissect those tonight, then new scenarios for tomorrow’s lunch. Feel free to exchange ideas tomorrow morning. Inside your scenario, combine two of your already learned skills to have greater impact on the enemy – we’ve done plenty of team combat drills, I know you can think of some new ones. I will select plausible ones and we’ll work on implementation during training tomorrow. Critiques to follow, repeat that the next day, depart for a C-rank in two days time. Tomorrow I’ll bring some old C-rank reports from a variety of missions so you have some background reading.”

“Uh…”

“We can help with that Naruto,” Sakura said promptly. It had taken a couple of days for the other two genin to realize he struggled with reading kanji – Kakashi had very carefully failed at being entirely discreet when he offered to help the blonde learn – and, to Naruto’s surprise and Kakashi’s smug satisfaction, had immediately offered to help after a few moments of blank shock.

In those moments he could almost _see_ conclusions being drawn by the other two genin – taking into account Naruto’s lack of family to teach him, the stares and whispers they’d already been subjected to as a team during the D-ranks and whatever they had witnessed in their Academy years. They were probably mostly wrong, but gave Naruto and himself some breathing room.

He was _working_ on the Sandaime as far as that went, he really was. Between his reports on their burgeoning teamwork and respectful reminders of his ongoing request to speak to Naruto about his heritage (at least his mother for kami’s sake!) he was certain he’d give in with regards to one of those revelations eventually.

“Excellent. Sakura, protection detail of one reasonably fit civilian-level individual, here to… Tea. Expected opposition, bandits intending to ransom. Sasuke, messenger duty, commercially classified information on production methods encoded, here to Otafaku Gai. Expected opposition, hired hands from rival companies. Naruto, merchant caravan protection, joint between Konoha and Grass, one team each, here to Kusa and back. Expected opposition, bandit groups after goods and money. Now let’s go get today’s missions.”

The three were so busy mulling over their assignments they didn’t say a word as they tossed their food containers and fell into a lovely little team formation in front of him. Sakura, genjutsu reapplied almost absently, she was getting good at that one, was on point, flanked by the two boys. She was the distraction, they were the pincers – from the Iwa plan.

Teamwork, nearly unconscious now, and good PR. The civilians who watched cooed over how the boys were “taking care of” the helpless little girl and “protecting” her under the watchful eye of their devilishly handsome sensei, while the shinobi either took it at face value or read into it and freaked out that Sakura was the power-house of the team and all their previously accepted intelligence on them was wrong.

He pulled out his book and hid his mask – the grin was too gleeful to suppress.

***===***pagebreak***===***

“An insult to one?”

“Is an insult to all,” the genin chorused the morning they were to request a C-rank, concluding their little mantra recitation practice during their cool-down. Meanwhile, Kakashi was patting himself on the back for including those C-rank reports – he’d been careful to pick ones from teams with exemplary teamwork, like the later Legendary Sannin, the original Ino-Shika-Cho, even some lesser known, but just as good at working together, teams. For Naruto, he’d included one about his precious Iruka-sensei _and_ one about his (though unknown) father. His mother would have been a little too obvious with the last name, at least until he got permission from the Sandaime.

“Team leader?” he asked, flicking his fingers in command and watching with satisfaction as they immediately formed up.

“Sasuke in-village, Sakura out-of-village shinobi, Naruto out-of-village civilians,” they even sighed in unison, so cute!

Naruto’s outspoken and… unsubtle, personality had been decided to be the least jarring to civilians, and the most annoying to other shinobi. Sakura, though still obviously not the best kunoichi to anyone with trained eyes, was capable of performing professionally in a way that still escaped Naruto when under stress. Sasuke hated dealing with people, but was willing to admit that in Konoha at least, his name opened a lot of doors with the civilian group and a fair number of shinobi too.

It was given that he himself had overall command, particularly in combat situations. Thanks to an ongoing effort to teach basic hand-signals, they might actually be able to communicate somewhat sensibly in that situation. He wasn’t too hopeful though, this would be first blood for all of them (well, except for animals, but while that was shocking for most the first time, it wasn’t as bone-deep _traumatic_ as your first human) and once something like that happened, even just the adrenaline from their first serious fight, things like recently learned hand-signals flew out the window.

With any luck, their reflexes and his skill would get them out of this alive and some semblance of whole.

They were growing on him after all. Like that demon mold in his fridge.

“Good. Well then, we’re as ready as we’re going to get by now, so let’s go see the Hokage about that C-rank,” Kakashi pulled out his book and ambled along behind them, the three preteens near vibrating with energy as they walked (Sasuke was at least subtle). Clearly they were excited about this C-rank; more excited than nervous, he figured.

Blunt assessment of their lack of readiness aside, they were children, and this was an adventure.

When had missions last been an adventure for him, he wondered? Certainly well before he was their age – actually, given his father’s impressive career and equally impressive crash, it had been by the time he was five.

Well, there was yet another reason he always had thought he was doomed as a sensei. Adapting to the shinobi mentality wasn’t something he had much experience in – not at the conscious level. And with these three – mostly Sakura, even now – he would have a lot to deal with after their first kills.

Oh kami, Sasuke and kills – either relatively easy or complete psychotic break one way or the other. Damn it! Maybe they could postpone the C-rank? Curse you Itachi! Unfortunately, there was no way around this one, especially since he’d reported to the Sandaime last night on how today would need to play out. At least he had the Hokage’s backing on this, otherwise this would get much more complicated.

“Team 7, requesting a C-rank,” Kakashi said blandly after they were brought to the Hokage’s office, watching out of the corner of his eye as Iruka’s head jerked up to stare at them, eyes narrow. The chuunin would know they weren’t ready, and cared enough about Naruto to object if he felt strongly enough about it.

“Yeah Hokage-ji- ack! Sakura!” Naruto rubbed the back of his head and sighed theatrically, restarting, “Yeah Hokage-sama, one C-rank please! Happy Sakura?”

“Ecstatic,” she replied loftily, Sasuke rolling his eyes on the left.

Had he made them practice this yesterday evening? Yes. Yes he had. If they acted enough, it would come naturally.

“Hmm. Jounin Hatake, you are certain they’re ready?” Sarutobi asked, Kakashi looking up from his book and saying simply, “Yes.”

A confidently delivered lie, if he did say so himself.

“Very well. Let us see… escort, no, he hasn’t arrived yet. Caravan? Gai’s team…”

Kakashi glared, not letting any of his panic-induced killing intent seep through, because he was a professional, but if the Sandaime assigned his barely averted disaster of a team to the same mission as _Gai_ this early in the game - !

His lips were twitching around that pipe, the bastard! He was just screwing with him! He _knew_ he’d gotten off too easily for the Forest of Death mess, he should have expected something like this. Shit, he hadn’t even _thought_ to brief the brats on current teams they might work with, there were only the four right now and they knew two of the others already! Crap!

“No, not yet, I think,” the Hokage continued, setting that form aside and Kakashi almost, but didn’t quite dare, sighed in relief. Iruka had no compunctions, and did, eyeing Naruto carefully at the same time before suppressing a shudder.

Naruto. Meeting Gai. Oh kami-sama no! Not until he’d gotten his hooks into the kid and anchored him – he had enough quirks as it was, there was no need to expose him to others!

“Shoreline patrol,” the Hokage skimmed the scroll in his hands, expression placid but a miniscule shift of his eyelids indicated pleasure. This was the one they were going to be getting then. “Wave stretch – and then, since you’re going that way anyway, a message delivery to a merchant family at Keiharu Port. Whichever order you prefer, Kakashi-kun.”

Both scrolls were rolled up and passed to him, he accepted with a bow while Iruka recorded the assignment. He’d go over the mission scrolls in detail later – right now he had to go and get his little minions ready for their first serious mission, at least two weeks too soon.

And here he had hoped that, not being in wartime, if he ever _did_ pass a team, there would be no worry about them being thrown into missions they weren’t ready for. Fucking council.

Naruto was now literally shaking with excitement, but managed to keep it under control until they got out of the Tower before exploding with glee, “YATTA! C-rank! Finally!”

Sakura and Sasuke, though less loud, had a grin and smile on their faces, respectively, clearly equally happy at their new missions. Neither required an immediate departure, so he didn’t feel any rush when he told them, “Pack for three weeks, meet at the southern gate in two hours. Check each other’s gear.”

That should take care of over or under-packing, or at least make them think about what they were packing more. Anything else would just be an object lesson, and having to share so they relied on one another would be yet another lesson on teamwork and the importance thereof.

Now, what techniques should he teach them while they were out? Since they could tree-run they’d get there with enough time to spare he would actually be able to double this as a training trip.

Well, some suiton by the sea could always be useful. He would have to get affinity paper – knowing their affinities would make it much easier to slam higher ranking techniques down their throats. Not all that essential when it came to completing missions, but definitely essential when it came to visible demonstrations of strength – which was what the council really cared about.

Then he’d have to find a mission to teach them subtlety and stealth – it was far too valuable a skill to leave them to stumble on by themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to have perspectives from the students, but they're really hard to get in the heads of - hopefully next chapter. Skipped details on their training because all my ideas were already written up in more interesting forms, so just go with team-training maybe some jutsus but mostly in fighting while covering for each other. And in faking teamwork and camaraderie if they can't manage actually doing it yet.
> 
> Kakashi is most definitely in the fake-it-till-you-make-it school of thought it seems.


	6. C-Rank, Go!

Sakura was happy.

The money she had earned from their ridiculous number of D-ranks (three or four a day!) was more than enough for her to change her outfit, and as soon as she could afford it, she had. Her first real C-rank was as good a chance as any to pull it out.

Muted blues and greens, with off-white wrappings for her arms and calves, and a blue scarf that wrapped around her hair while _still_ looking fashionable. The retired kunoichi in the shop she’d gone too had been _so_ helpful when it came to picking things out – she wanted to take her career seriously, but she still wanted to take pride in her appearance!

She doubted either of her teammates would understand that. Sasuke, attractive as he could be, never changed his outfit – and she meant _never_. Naruto, his jacket well and truly dead thanks to their Forest of Death trip (thank kami!) still went out of his way to wear _something_ neon and dreadful. Maybe they could kill the pants on this mission – surely sensei would get behind that! Shinobi didn’t wear _neon_.

Though he _did_ read those neon orange books all the time…

Well, however that worked out, she was all packed! Two changes of clothes, more than that in underwear, some socks in case they ever had time to rest and it was cold, two pouches of kunai, one of shuriken and a basic medical kit with bandages, soldier pills and some poultices and herbs. Not too much of the latter, that added a lot of weight, so she packed a small pamphlet on medicinal herbs for that region that had been included in the massive packet sensei had given her yesterday, and a scroll on chakra control exercises and one iryo-jutsu got stuffed into the pack as well.

She knew her sensei, there was no way they wouldn’t have training time on this trip, and maybe if she brought stuff that she could work on, she’d be allowed to work on _that_ instead of whatever awful exercises he came up with.

A girl could dream, right?

Then she also packed some ration bars and dried spices – she should be able to bargain her cooking expertise with Naruto’s traps; he was much better at hunting than she was, even if he _did_ bring back some disgusting things he claimed were edible.

She would never admit it, but the larvae had actually been rather good.

And, the most vital and valuable supply of all.

One bar of chocolate.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Sasuke was having a mild existential crisis.

He had broken a few kunai and shuriken over the course of their training with sensei when the man taught him to enhance his speed and force with chakra in anticipation of his sharingan activating (it would!) and hadn’t had a chance to shop for more. He had already gone through his father and mother’s stock and didn’t have time to hunt through the rest of the compound and he _needed_ more of them for this mission.

He’d delayed as long as he could, packing everything into a lightweight pack designed for genin who couldn’t yet seal supplies away and ensuring he could carry it easily, but now all that was left was his kunai and shuriken deficit.

So he was standing in front of Itachi’s room, a room he had avoided going in since the night of the massacre, and trying to think of another stash of ninja weapons that he could get to in the compound.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t entirely certain where anyone else in the family had kept their stash and he’d never been able to bring himself to rummage through his family’s echoingly empty homes to get supplies, even if he _was_ using those supplies to train so he could avenge them.

He was shakily reaching for the handle of the door when he heard a crash outside and an unmistakable and ridiculously loud voice bellowing, “TEME! YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE US LATE!”

“Shut up Naruto!” Sakura barked, a thud and crack meaning she’d struck another blow. “We don’t even know if he’s here! Sasuke! HURRY UP!”

“Come on let’s blitz through and find him!” Naruto cried, Sakura’s shrieks of “Don’t you dare that’s so rude NARUTO!” following the dobe as he crashed through the door with a cry of victory, Sasuke hearing two pairs of almost-quiet feet padding up to him and he immediately looked over to catch them both in a glare when they got to the hall.

“Yo! Teme! What’s up? You’re usually first to get anywhere!” Naruto demanded, bright blue eyes concerned even as his face had a shit-eating grin on it. Sasuke desperately wanted to punch him – he knew it was Naruto’s idea to go find him, he still had _twenty minutes_ to get to the gate. So what if he was usually thirty-minutes early, he was just taking his time today there was no reason to be _concerned_ for him he was absolutely fine!

“Woah – teme, you all right?” a hand rested on his shoulder, Naruto’s expression now concerned as well. Sakura was hovering next to him, looking… much more professional in her new muted blue and green outfit, green eyes equally worried.

“I’m low on kunai and shuriken,” Sasuke said shortly.

Sakura nodded, saying, “Yeah, you did break a lot trying to get that speed and strength enhancement under control this week. But there’s not much time to buy any, not and test them for balance and stuff.”

“Err… not to be insensitive, but… wouldn’t there be plenty of kunai and shuriken and stuff in here?” Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his neck and waving the other hand around to encompass the entire Uchiha district.

Sasuke growled, but didn’t take offense – the dobe was right after all, “I don’t know where anyone else stashed their weapons and I didn’t feel – I didn’t dig through my relatives’ things. So now I don’t know where they stashed them and there’s _no time_ and – “ he took a deep breath, biting down on the rest of his potential babbling, _hard_. He would _not_ show them how deeply this was affecting him.

Unfortunately, they had gotten decent enough at reading his nonverbal cues to rescue him from awkward conversations, which meant they could tell something was wrong.

“Neh – whose room is this then?” Naruto asked, nodding at the door, “There weapons in there?”

“Yes,” Sasuke said shortly, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the door.

Naruto shot Sakura a baffled look, but the pink-haired girl apparently understood and she winced, saying quietly, “That’s… that’s Itachi’s room. Isn’t it?”

Sasuke didn’t reply, but judging by Naruto’s mumbled curse that was enough to confirm it. “Right!” Naruto said brightly, fingers forming a familiar cross and the number of Naruto’s in his house jumping exponentially – it was mildly horrifying. “We three get to the gate to wait for sensei, these guys will gather shuriken and kunai – need anything else Sasuke? We can probably find more than enough in the district to get you through the mission without using any of _that asshole’s_ stuff, yeah?”

The gratitude he felt for that was nearly sickening, but the two idiots he was stuck with just waited for him to finally nod, before they bounded out of the house to get their packs and wait for him to exit. Meanwhile, clones darted through the compound, hollering to each other to coordinate their efforts and already some were emerging from other houses with decent kunai and shuriken.

“Two of each?” Naruto asked, Sasuke nodding and then Naruto bellowed the request through the compound, various clones responding with, “Hai!”

“Mind if they sort through other stuff?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke hesitated – this was _his family_ – but it had been years and he could barely walk through the entire compound without seizing. Maybe it would be better if… if he came back and all the useful supplies were already gathered without him hunting through bloodstained homes and jutsu-scarred streets to find them.

His teammates – idiots, still – watched him, waiting patiently, and finally he nodded. Naruto shouted to another clone and then the three of them were off, racing over roof-tops to get to the gate sensei had directed them to with ten minutes to spare.

He very nearly tripped and fell on his face when he saw that _sensei was waiting for them_.

***===***pagebreak***===***

This was working out far better than he had anticipated in even his wildest hopes.

Kakashi had packed in a matter of moments, he kept mission-ready packs in his apartment at all times, so it was simple enough to seal away one of them in a scroll and he even had the time to craft three more seals so when his little genin earned it, he could seal away their packs too. He’d have to teach one of them seals – maybe Naruto? It was his legacy after all…

Well, everyone could use the knowledge of storage seals, it was a damn shame so few people actually got into that study. He’d give them the basics and enough to save them some serious money when they got older and see if any of them took to it.

And if Naruto did… maybe he could push harder for his mother’s legacy.

Anyway, being done so quickly meant he could go check on his students to make sure they were making decent progress. Sakura’s new outfit was a pleasant surprise, he had been wondering how he’d be able to get her to stop with the red dress without getting dragged into clothing shopping _with her_ , horror of horrors. Naruto had packed food besides instant ramen, serious progress, and enough trapping equipment that Kakashi was mildly concerned for the fate of the rabbit population in their assigned area.

Sasuke had… been unfortunately timed. He could almost _hear_ the boy’s mental argument as he surveyed a low count of sound kunai and shuriken, picking through what were clearly inferior specimens and rejecting them – at least he was able to force himself to do that much.

Watching him stand in front of Itachi’s door had been… surprisingly painful. Itachi’s room had been picked through, the whole damned _compound_ had been picked through, but everything unclassified had been left where it was for the most part, it was Sasuke’s property. He hadn’t done much with it, not that Kakashi could blame him – it wasn’t like he had entered the Hatake clan compound outside of his annual inspection for the groundskeepers – but Itachi’s room was clearly an entirely different battle.

Just when Kakashi was about to go in and tell him he’d supply him with shuriken and kunai, Naruto and Sakura bounded up with their packs secured and started hassling him for being later than usual. He had listened in to their conversation and was this ringing sensation in his gut _pride_ it had to be because they were _learning_ and _running_ with what he was teaching them holy _shit_ he had never thought they’d come together this fast maybe there _was_ a chance –

He left as soon as the clones arrived, feeling light-hearted and honestly hopeful for the first time since this disaster of a team had happened.

They just might actually make it.

Of course, he was so focused on how he was going to get them through this mission alive and safe and whole so they could _continue_ to actually make it that he nearly forgot that he was technically early. He sighed as they came into view, realizing he had lost his streak.

But Sasuke’s near face-plant was totally worth it.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Through a complicated series of calculations done one night when he couldn’t sleep, Naruto had determined that the majority of his recent good fortune could be traced back to the Council that had pissed off sensei and was one of the biggest dangers to his life right about now. Which meant that his anger at their assholeness was being counteracted by the fact that thanks to them, his teammates were actually feeling kind of like _teammates_ and their sensei was actually _pushing_ them to be teammates – because he doubted this would have worked so well if there weren’t the threat of political doom hanging over them – so he wouldn’t be spending all his spare time coming up with a way to prank them.

Though, maybe if he worded it right, he could sell it to sensei as a team-building exercise…

Sometimes, he impressed _himself_ with his own brilliance.

They were two hours out of Konoha – and probably a fair number of miles, given the pace sensei was setting as they raced through the trees. He would bet that they’d continue this pace for two more hours, then either stop for a brief break and continue slower or stop for some training and not move any further today. Either way, two more hours would bring them to Sakura’s edge as far as maintaining this pace went, but four hours of this run was nothing to scoff at, especially considering how shitty her endurance was just out of the Academy.

Of course, she was much better with tree-running than he and Sasuke were, so she was probably expending less chakra, but she would still tire first. They just had greater reserves _and_ endurance than her at the moment.

Sure enough, two hours later she was seriously struggling to maintain the pace and sensei dropped down to a more leisurely jog through the trees, rather than a panicked oh-shit-we’re-about-to-be-eaten sprint.

Though, judging by his complete and utter _lack_ of being out of breath, Naruto had a sinking suspicion that their recent pace hadn’t even been _close_ to sensei’s actual oh-shit-we’re-about-to-be-eaten sprint.

Well then, they’d just have to get faster.

When all of them had cooled down and regained their breathing patterns, he finally dropped down to a stroll, and then all the way to a stop in one particularly fine specimen of Hi no Kuni giant tree and sat down on a wide branch, waving them to take seats nearby.

Sakura sat down further out on the same branch, quickly collapsing into her stretches. Sasuke jumped to a slightly higher branch and sat closer to sensei and the main trunk, while Naruto decided to hang upside down from a branch across from the _teme_ – he needed all the chakra control practice he could get. “Neh, sensei,” he asked, “What’s shore-patrol like? Border patrol we got some lectures on… that I don’t really remember. Shore like that?”

Sensei sighed, probably because Naruto admitted to not paying attention at the academy, _again_ , but explained succinctly, “Shore patrol is a type of border patrol. Border patrol duties are to check on outposts, permanently manned and mothballed, and search for any undesirables. Bandits, pirates, smugglers, enemy ninja – the last are the most worrisome. Shore patrol, particularly along the Wave stretch, is the least likely of all to encounter enemy shinobi. However, smugglers and pirates are a concern here, and we must be on watch for them – the more wealthy operations can hire missing-nin, so stealth will be vital, as well as speed.”

Naruto nodded, walking around his branch so he was standing less entirely upside-down – the blood rushing to his head was making it hard to concentrate.

“And the message delivery? When will we be doing that?” Sakura asked, finishing her stretches and folding her legs under her to sit more comfortably.

“That will fall at the end of our shore patrol – Keitaro is a port town which has the most dealings with Wave and concludes the section we’ve been assigned. We’re going to the far end of the shore, closer to Noodles, then cutting up and over to Keitaro. That mission, Sakura, will be yours to plan and execute.”

Sakura-chan looked startled, then determined – a much more dramatic expression with her scar.

Seeing her scar brought up another concern of his, “And Sakura’s scar? How are we going to explain that?”

Sensei gave his evil eye-smirk and said, “I don’t know Naruto. That’s your job to figure out.”

Well damn. Ask a question, get the answer you seriously don’t want. Sakura was eyeing him suspiciously so he beamed at her, reassuring, “Don’t worry Sakura-chan! I’ll make the story something _epic_!”

“Dobe,” Sasuke snorted, smirk on his face reassuring. Naruto hadn’t liked the shocky, shaky Sasuke he and Sakura had stumbled on in the Uchiha compound, and _really_ hadn’t liked the quietly, disturbingly _grateful_ Sasuke that had emerged after his offer to search for kunai and shuriken. Thankfully for their status quo and his own peace of mind, after a clone had bounded up with two pouches of each weapon the Uchiha had regained his equilibrium and they started their first C-rank with familiar jibes and taunts.

It would have been weird without them.

“Not so fast Sasuke,” sensei sing-songed – it was creepy. He always did that when it was something deviously awful that was coming, could anyone blame them that they cringed and leaned away from the man?

No. No one could at all.

“ _You_ my dear student, get to plan out three potential ambushes – one for small-time smugglers, one for active pirates, let’s say three ships, and one for land-based bandits. Missing-nin included, of course. I’ll pick some from the bingo book for you.”

Sasuke groaned and Naruto wanted to cackle – he had _definitely_ gotten the best end of the deal here. Score for Uzumaki!

Of course, that meant he’d get the crappily complicated assignment _next_ time, but he’d savor his victory while he could. The others would do the same, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got Sasuke a perspective piece - worked through all four in this chapter actually, woohoo! Definitely not happening again, it was a pain to figure out voices and transitions.
> 
> Hope they were captured well! Reviews and constructive criticism, always welcome!


	7. Rising Swells

“Dobe, we need to trip up that one with the tattooed face.”

“Right – throw this three feet to the left of him. Sakura, this two feet behind, hit the deck hard – simultaneous throws on my mark, one two three _mark_!”

Two kunai flew with remarkable accuracy towards the pirate and hit their targets near perfectly – thankfully, Naruto’s traps never really needed to be _perfectly_ accurate for them to work. Impact explosive tags he’d recently learned to make distracted him enough that the shadow clones leaping out from the follow-up kunais Naruto had thrown were able to knock him out and hog-tie him.

Kakashi-ichi, one of two shadow clones the jounin had made for this encounter, kept an eye on the brats. They were staying out of this one for the most part – they had come across a pirate crew led by a nukenin of Mist, in the midst of a raid on one of Hi no Kuni’s merchant fleets. The escort shinobi had managed to do some damage but the nukenin that commanded the crew had recruited a few others of like minds and skills to join up and the chunnin weren’t really a match for five chunnin or higher opponents.

He hadn’t heard anything about this level of piracy on the coast. Either the ships had just moved into Hi no Kuni waters or heads were going to roll in the intelligence department.

Their water-walking had gotten plenty of practice on their four days of peaceful shore patrol, the waves and swells of the ocean taking a bit of work. He also had the memory of the first time they saw the ocean saved with his Sharingan – if only he could figure out a way to take a photo of a memory, he was certain the Yamanakas could help him come up with something if he actually trusted people inside his brain – because the slack jaws and utter awe were adorable.

He had also managed to catch Naruto’s first encounter with a sea urchin and Sakura’s face when she was double-dog dared into sticking her tongue in a small anemone. He was sure Obito would approve this sort of use for his eye – indelibly etching things besides kills and slaughters into his mind made for a nice change.

As they were patrolling one of Naruto’s radius clones had dispelled and alerted them to this little fight going on, and Sasuke had pulled out his plan for multi-nukenin pirates and Kakashi had approved its implementation. The kids hadn’t lost their brutal honesty for self-evaluation, making the plan feasible.

Some flaws, but nothing that would necessarily get them killed if they were exploited, so he felt no compunctions about having a shadow clone watch over them while he-himself went after the nukenin in charge. If any of those flaws _were_ exploited, it would be a valuable teaching experience.

So here they were, hiding in a poorly secured lifeboat (flaw one) under a mild nothing-to-see-here genjutsu Sakura had learned the second day of their mission (sort of flaw) and sabotaging the people they could to give the Konoha-nin an edge that they sorely needed.

Kakashi-himself and Kakashi-ni were taking care of the commanding nukenin and his second in command, respectively. Kakashi-ni was actually aiding the chunnin commander from the B-rank escort mission, who was dealing with the second in command. A high chunnin verging on jounin rank, if Kakashi were to guess. A little easy to goad, and not enough skill to back it up. Right now it was just a waiting game for an opening that was actually exploitable without self-sacrifice.

Now the nukenin that Kakashi-himself was dealing with actually seemed a competent jounin and very well versed in water-techniques and shipboard fighting, giving him the homeground advantage. He also didn’t seem to particularly care about collateral damage, oddly enough.

There might be valuable information on this ship that he wouldn’t want to have fall into their hands, not something that could be moved or was worth money, otherwise he wouldn’t want it destroyed, but something that was dangerous to leave around where they could access it.

“Maa, Naruto,” he said, the genin looking over at him briefly, “Hai sensei?”

“Make a couple clones and have them sneak aboard and get below decks. I want to know what sort of information they have – read what documents you can and dispel, if you can’t get them out. If you can secure them and we manage to secure the ship, all the better, but just in case, read some first.”

“What are we looking for?” Naruto asked, brow furrowed, Sakura glancing over at him and biting her lower lip.

Bad habit that, “Stop that Sakura, if you get startled you’ll bite through your own lip and that is just as painful as it sounds, trust me.”

She quickly released her lip and said, “Hai sensei!” before turning back to the watching the fight with Sasuke.

Kakashi then answered Naruto, “You want to keep an eye out for things regarding where they were last, if they’re receiving orders from anyone, if they’re in correspondence with people – how did they know this convoy was here, is this his only ship – things like that.”

“Right – I’ll do my best,” Naruto said, clearly somewhat dubious, but he made a total of five clones that darted through the fights in henges of various forms – the crab was ingenious – and quickly made it below decks (one jumped off the side and squeezed through a porthole, nice flexibility demonstration). Kakashi-ichi just nodded and sat back against the stern again, returning the majority of his focus to his students’ participation in the fight, while a side-focus was in reading his marvelous text.

He’d caught up on Icha Icha, and with eidetic memory, even without the Sharingan, it wasn’t worth rereading it as much as he always seemed to. Instead, he kept the jackets and put them on similarly sized books – this one was a recent find from the Hokage’s personal library before he’d been assigned Team 7; a bribe, he was sure.

Well, he wasn’t going to say no to incentives like this. The affinity enhancement and growth techniques and theories described here were fascinating and utterly new to him.

Oh, there went the second in command. Lovely.

And there went the chunnin commander to chakra exhaustion. Sigh.

“Naruto, ally evac, over there,” Sakura pointed, Naruto nodding and adding another two clones to the count and they didn’t bother with subtlety (well, they did – one henged into Sasuke), simply blitzing over to the downed chunnin and grabbing him before jumping off the side of the ship to land on the waves, running towards one of the merchant ships the pirates had never had a chance to reach, the Sasuke-clone deflecting kunai and shuriken as if he really were an Uchiha.

Hmm. Something to investigate.

He turned the page, watching with quite a bit of self-satisfied contentment as his students took down another pirate via distraction while a chunnin dealt the final blow. They were doing quite nicely, and had yet to make a direct kill between the three of them (though he didn’t know what Naruto’s shadow clones were doing – note, deal with that later) so he didn’t have to be stuck with that counseling job just yet.

Seemed the pirates were panicking – oh, another nukenin down. Not a surprise really, the man relied entirely on earth techniques and they were on the ocean, gave him little to work with. Probably was in charge of hiding their goodies, especially if they went the stereotypical bury a stash on an island route.

Ah. Kakashi-himself and Kakashi-ni had gotten the head down, at last. Dead it seemed, rather than captured for interrogation. Unfortunate, but with the ship still intact and Naruto-clones swarming for data, they would hopefully get some answers.

There went the rest of the crew, and some even surrendered peacefully. More chances for answers.

For the usual first-time C-rank complication, this wasn’t so bad. Seeing as he was no longer needed, he could dispel at will. Three Kakashi’s was a little much after all.

Kakashi-himself blinked, memories from his first shadow clone merging and meshing with his own quickly and efficiently – he had a lot of practice at it, after all. Another blink, and his second clone’s memories were assimilated as well. There was that done.

“Hatake-senpai!” the ranking chunnin nodded shortly, “Prisoners secured.”

“Excellent. Genin!” he called, giving them the ‘approach, caution’ sign he’d pounded into their heads even more over the past few days (one day of communicating in nothing but hand-signs had made them very… creatively metaphorical).

Sakura released her genjutsu before the genin jumped onto the deck and Kakashi was smugly dissatisfied with the wide-eyed look on the three remaining chunnin’s faces. Really, they were in the middle of a melee battle with nukenin, and they couldn’t detect a genjutsu concealing something on a lifeboat? That was going to get them killed one day.

“May I introduce my genin team,” Kakashi said formally as they walked over, “Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto – Team Seven, assigned shore patrol on the Wave stretch when we spotted the fight out here and came to reinforce Konoha.”

“Our thanks,” the senior bowed slightly, splitting his attention between Kakashi and his children, “I’m Watanabe Keigo, these two are Byaku Ichigo and Uryuu Renji. Our commander is Natsu Yamato – I believe he was evacuated?”

“He’s on the main merchant ship receiving medical treatment from their shipboard doctor – just chakra exhaustion and some minor stuff,” Naruto supplied, Kakashi nodding and asking, “Lower decks clear?”

There was a flickering across his eyes – damn. He had killed down there then. “Not sure, sensei. Only have a couple clones left in there, searching the office. There were – “ he hesitated, casting an uneasy glance at his teammates (Sakura in particular – and unfortunately, he had a feeling he knew exactly what sort of cargo was giving him trouble).

“Odd cargos?” Kakashi supplied, Naruto’s quick grateful look noted by his teammates but not commented on – they’d corner him later, he was sure. “Hai sensei, odd cargos.”

“Hmm. You three will guard the prisoners – Watanabe-san, do any of you know how to operate this rig?”

“Hai, especially with jutsus. Two of us can manage it for short distances.”

“We’re not going anywhere – we’re dropping anchor. The merchant rigs aren’t damaged and at risk of sinking. I want two of you to go over there and relay a message that the fight is over and we would appreciate assistance bringing these criminals in to port so they can face lawful repercussions for their actions and appropriate reparations can be made,” Kakashi ordered, making his orders a little more in-depth than he normally would so his genin would understand what was going on – and so the men (and one woman, interesting) would sweat.

“Hai Hatake-san, at once! Byaku-san, with me!” the two chunnin quickly dropped the anchor and vanished over the side.

“Anything I can help with, Hatake-san?” Uryuu Renji asked, raising his hand slightly with a wry smile, “Afraid I’m the newbie on this run – at least so far as ships go. Cut my teeth near Kaze no Kuni, bit of a different environment.”

Kakashi snorted, that was something of an understatement, even if Rivers was along that stretch. But it meant he might have picked up some wind-jutsus, and while he knew quite a few thanks to his eye and his sensei, there might be some new ones, and more importantly some basic ones, that he could steal for Naruto. Something to think about later.

Biting on his thumb and flashing through seals, Pakkun and Bull appeared in a billow of smoke, the two ninken shaking themselves and looking around curiously, “What’s up, boss?” Pakkun asked, looking at the bound pirates in disdain, “Need help taking out the trash?”

“Not this time Pakkun, at least not yet,” Kakashi chuckled, “Need you to keep an eye on them and my brats with Bull while Uryuu-san and I clear the holds of the ship.”

“You spawned? Kami save us all,” Pakkun said dryly, Naruto indignantly crying, “Hey!” even while Sakura smacked him and Sasuke gave a sigh that spoke volumes.

The boy was talented.

“Maa, maa, no. These are my little genin minions! Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura – you three, these are two of my ninken, we’ll have to introduce you to the others at some point. Pakkun’s the pug with good smelling fur and soft paws, Bull’s the big guy that’s great at intimidation.”

“Yo,” both dogs said in unison, waving their paws in imitations of hellos. Sakura looked about ready to explode at cuteness, so Kakashi quickly collected Uryuu and left. Those two didn’t look like much – even Bull, to a shinobi’s eyes – but they were entirely capable of taking down jounin level opponents and had in fact run up to A-rank missions on their own when he was particularly slammed in ANBU solos.

He may suck at teaching humans, but give him puppies and he’d make a viciously loyal and intelligent team that could by kami get the job _done_. Took a bit longer, since he had to raise them from puppyhood, but hey – they were much easier to understand than people.

“So, not that I don’t trust your ninken, but is leaving them up there with no higher ranked shinobi a good idea?” Uryuu asked bluntly, following him down into the hold with a pair of kunai in hand. Kakashi was listening carefully for anyone – it was hard to detect by smell in this reeking mess of humanity, sea salt and tar – but still answered, “My team can handle them – ” _maybe, thank kami for dogs_ “ – and Naruto reported slaves.”

“Ah,” Uryuu nodded, apparently figuring that Kakashi was one of those jounin sensei who tried to shelter his team as much as possible.

Not really, but yes really. He just couldn’t _afford_ to shelter them as much as that type of sensei stereotypically did. They couldn’t afford it if they wanted to live, and they did, and he wanted them to as well, so there you had it. He couldn’t shelter them that much.

But he’d take what he could get.

One inexpertly killed pirate sprawled across the gangway – check. Another shoved into a broken beam and impaled – still twitching, a slash across the neck took care of that one. Various signs of chaos and destruction made it easy enough to find the office Naruto had been talking about. It was a fairly spacious room for a ship – three small portholes along the side, looked like the merchant ships were drawing closer – and had papers all over the place, two clones sorting through it all.

It was also where the would-be pirate-lord spent the majority of his time, evidenced by the bed that took up half of the room and the rather attractive concubine that took up half the bed. She was a classical beauty, out of Tea if he had to guess, and had an admirable sense of poise. Despite two identical genin sorting through her former employer’s things, she was draped over cushions with a very deliberately placed robe covering the most essential of her assets and drinking tea.

“Ah, shinobi-san,” she gave a demure smile, Kakashi acknowledging another professional with a nod, “I suppose Nakikaze-san is dead then? A shame. He had yet to pay me in full.”

“Maa, if you can produce your contract and we can find his stash, we can probably come to some sort of severance agreement,” Kakashi shrugged. It was a standard practice for Konoha, kept people from feeling cheated out of their paychecks and souring relations. Besides, these sorts usually kept extra money around so they seldom came up short.

But he had more important things to worry about right now, the woman could clearly take care of herself.

“Naruto,” he nodded to his student, approaching the one that actually looked up at him, sitting cross-legged on top of the late Nakikaze’s desk, “What have you found?”

“It’s weird sensei,” Naruto-ichi said, rubbing the back of his head, “Most of the maps are for Wave itself – but we’re a little south for that, I think. And there’s some coded correspondence, but I suck at codes, so I just put that aside for you or Sakura-chan, and then there’s his book-keeping and he had like _three_ books all that had different numbers and that’s what he’s working on and then it _looks_ like he has agreements with _someone_ based on the repetition in the books and there’s _some_ sort of pattern in these log entries as to targets but I just can’t figure it. Oh, and this is Momoko-san, she’s pretty cool.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the clearly adopted name, while Uryuu actually choked. Naruto either didn’t get the pun or didn’t think it was that funny – oddly, he couldn’t decide which side was more likely.

“Well done, Naruto. Now, the unusual cargos? I assume they are not so willingly or well treated as Momoko-san.”

“No,” Naruto-ichi winced. “I’ve got three trying to make them more comfortable – we found keys and stuff. Most of them apparently haven’t been stuck down there for long, it’s a recent raid or whatever you call it. So… there’s that. I guess.”

“Fortunately, Nakikaze wasn’t much, but he was a businessman,” Momoko said coolly, sitting up and casually dropping her robe to don mildly more appropriate garb. Naruto flushed and looked away – Kakashi just gave a critical once over and ignored her and if he wasn’t mistaken, Uryuu was ogling. Idiot would be eaten alive if this was his self-control.

“Meaning he treated his cargo relatively well,” Kakashi explained to Naruto, who looked slightly nauseous at the idea of treating humans as cargo, but he was holding up rather well all things considered. “Unlikely we’ll be dealing with the usual liberties taken by crews then?”

“It happened once,” Momoko gave an icy smile, “I was permitted to castrate them.”

“Do you have ambitions for violence?” Kakashi asked mildly, (Uryuu shuddered – it was a near automatic reaction for most males at the mention of castration, oddly enough), and she returned it with a cool disdain, replying, “Please. I desire comfort with occasional dashes of excitement. Repeated violence is far too much work.”

Good, he hadn’t read her wrong. He’d met women (and one man) like her before and while he didn’t understand their lifestyle, it was what they chose and they were damn good at it. He could respect someone with that sort of dedication to their life’s work, especially since they, too, were viewed as less-than-human by most everyday people.

“Then we may be able to come to an agreement,” he replied, and Momoko snapped her fan open in front of her face, saying coyly, “I look forward to it.”

“Kindly stay here for the time being,” Kakashi said shortly, “One of you, with me. Uryuu – “ one look at the man told Kakashi he wasn’t going to be much good on this one. Been at sea a little too long, or just very susceptible to women. That was going to go into his report, most definitely.

“Oh could he stay here?” Momoko asked, a breathless tremor in her voice, expertly faked. He would have rolled his eye, but it was too much effort, “I’d feel so much better of a brave strong shinobi were here to keep me safe.”

It was a good thing Uryuu’s back was to him, because he was unable to prevent casting her a disbelieving look – that was laying it on a little thick – oh for kami’s sake!

“I’ll gladly stay behind, Hatake-senpai, if that is what you order, of course,” Uryuu was thinking with his little head. Would serve him right if she were some maneating monster that clipped it for him, unprofessional idiot. Even Naruto was giving him an ‘are you kidding’ look – Naruto! The boy who _still_ wore neon orange pants!

“Fine,” Kakashi said shortly, “Narutos, all of you with me.”

The door shut behind them, two Narutos carrying the encoded letters and the accounting books – good forethought – and Naruto-ichi saying, “She’s gonna eat him alive.”

“Hopefully not literally,” Kakashi replied dryly, “Two with the books, go up to the main deck, greet the other chunnin, because they _should_ be here right now, and send some of the merchant’s crew down to help bring the people up to the main deck. Get some shelter set up or something.”

“And Uryuu-san and Momoko-san?” Naruto-ichi asked, the other two darting off.

“Oh I’m sure they’ll be just fine.”

***===***pagebreak***===***

That evening found Team 7 on the liberated pirate ship with some of the merchant crew sailing the vessel with the rest of the little convoy. The slaves had been freed and scattered to the other ships, a chunnin on each taking care of information gathering on that front. They’d found the money stash and records quickly enough once the boat was cleared and the actual prisoners secured – seals, had to love them – and with any luck the bounties on the pirates would be enough to cover a bit for each of the freed slaves and get them somewhat on their feet.

Meh. Not his problem anymore. He had enough to deal with between his students and ensuring Momoko-san was dealt with properly before they left to finish their patrol. She had requested to stay on board this vessel so she could pack and, as she’d technically not done anything illegal, and _technically_ was an indentured-servant-and-slave-in-all-but-name-and-reality, she wasn’t going to be prosecuted for anything.

The contract she’d pulled up and they’d found a copy of was a masterpiece, truly. He was keeping the copy for posterity.

Concubine aside, he had to debrief his baby genin.

They were up on the highest deck, sleeping bags set up and the three in a circle with their heads together, so they could pretend to secretly whisper to each other in the middle of the night (seriously, it was kind of annoying) but right now the three were just sitting there on top of their bedrolls and playing some form of card game.

“All right, you three up for a debrief?” Kakashi asked rhetorically, sitting down and resting his back against the hull of the ship, the three turning to face him and giving some sign of assent.

“Sakura, report.”

She stammered a bit, had some awkward pauses, but over-all, a solid first combat report. She seemed a little shaky, probably finally coming off the adrenaline high, but still rather solid. Good, one down.

Sasuke came next, and he was very composed, almost entirely professional. A few slips here and there gave away his jitters though, first combat was always a bit of a dicey one, but overall, good. Helped that he and Sakura didn’t directly fight, not really, they plotted and ambushed. Made things a little easier – good. He was easing them into this shinobi business, even if they were sent out weeks too early on this mission.

Now Naruto’s – that was the one he really needed to hear.

Followed the others rather well, though a bit disjointed thanks to his ridiculous use of Kage bunshin. He might need to come up with an entirely separate reporting style to make sense of all that simultaneous input… at the very least he’d need to work on coherently reporting it, Kakashi understood it because he understood the problem, but if this were written out as spoken other readers would be confused beyond belief.

Turns out he’d killed five – counting the one that he’d left twitching that Kakashi had finished off, but Naruto had thought he’d been dead so the response was the same as if he had finished the job. No need to tell him he’d left a pirate to suffer.

Sakura and Sasuke were both uneasy at that report in their own ways. Sakura was pale faced and staring at her hands, Sasuke was grimly blank and staring into the distance, eyes dark. While they hadn’t killed personally, they’d watched people die as a result of their interference and were now hearing about the results of individual combat from their teammate, a peer in age and relative maturity.

“You two, go spar on the water for a bit, Pakkun will go with you,” Kakashi said, the pug grumbling but getting up off his pillow and following the two genin briskly enough. Kakashi could give a whistle and Pakkun would hustle them back, and could relay any potential breakdowns Kakashi would have to deal with aside from the ‘yay first blood!’ speech.

“So. Naruto. How are you feeling?” Kakashi winced, that was the worst opener ever. He knew that from _all_ his experience as a shinobi, but how else did you open that line of conversation? Well, besides a rough ‘congratulations you’re officially an adult now’ which he _didn’t_ think would go over well.

It hadn’t exactly gone over well when he gave that speech to Rin – though not as badly as his attempt at reassurance when she’d stared at him in horror.

In hindsight, “Don’t worry, you’ll get down the technique to kill them fast so they don’t spasm so much soon enough,” hadn’t exactly been reassuring. But at least it’d been honest.

“…Kind of gross,” Naruto mumbled, “I mean – yeah. It’s our job, and they were clearly jerks, but… we’re trying the rest of these guys, right? I just – maybe it would have been better, that way?”

Kakashi hummed to stall for time, saying carefully, “Well, given the laws of Fire Country regarding slavery and piracy, quite a few of these pirates are going to be sentenced to death.”

“So because they would have died anyway, it’s okay?” Naruto asked, voice surprisingly sardonic.

“Maa, just something to consider a comfort in this case,” Kakashi shrugged, continuing bluntly, “You won’t have that all the time, Naruto.”

The blonde flinched, looking away before he nodded slightly, “Yeah – yeah. I get that. But – it’s not, I mean – they were fast, I didn’t have time to really, think about it but that last guy with the people there was – umm. I could have stopped them. But – I didn’t.”

“Did you enjoy it? Watching?” Kakashi asked bluntly, because that death hadn’t exactly been an easy one. Not the hardest he’d seen, not even close, but harder than the gut-skewer he’d finished.

“No!” Naruto cried, aghast, “It just – it just didn’t seem my place, to tell them to stop, you know? I mean, I’d killed those other guys, and they’d been the ones hurt by them, so… why shouldn’t they get to finish that guy? It was _gross_ , sensei. It was – it was nasty.”

 _Don’t tell him he’ll see worse soon enough, genin. Remember. Baby genin_ , Kakashi reminded himself, saying finally, “Okay. Naruto – listen. This is important.”

The genin looked up at him, blue eyes suspiciously shiny (no tears no tears please sweet merciful kami no tears!) and Kakashi was careful to meet his eyes as best he could while he said, “You’ll remember these men. You’ll remember them for the rest of your life. Others might blur together, might grow indistinct, but from everyone I’ve spoken to – you remember your first. What you need to remind yourself of is this – first. You were in combat. They were going to try to kill you – they struck some killing blows on your clones, didn’t they? And they thought your clones were really you.”

Naruto nodded, good, he was thinking still.

“Second, everyone dies. There’s no avoiding that. What we do is no crime against nature. The act of dying is _natural_. Got that?”

Another nod – right, that was the thank god it was a combat kill bit, then the natural laws revulsion bit, now what was he missing? Better luck on quick kills next time? At least you didn’t have to kill any kids, just wait till you get to my age? No, bad sensei!

“What is also natural is to feel some satisfaction in it, it’s simple instinct. You are alive, your opponent is dead, of course you’re going to be satisfied, be pleased. Satisfaction in surviving, in a job well done, does not make you a monster,” Naruto perked up at that, a little twitch of interest – aha! He’d found the problem! “It makes you _human_ ,” he said, leaning in slightly and resting a hand on Naruto’s shoulder, “It makes you _human_ , Naruto-kun. The problem comes when your first instinct is to kill, when you seek to kill outside the mission, off the field, because you _enjoy_ it. And even then – it is manageable, with help.”

Best stop there, he didn’t need to talk about the sociopath management program all shinobi villages had. Enough that Naruto knew he wasn’t a monster (of _course_ that’s what he had been worried about, with the kyuubi revealed so recently) and knew that there was help there, should he ever go down that path (oh please no, not Naruto, not sensei’s son).

Naruto leaned into the contact, Kakashi hesitating briefly before shifting his arm entirely around the boy’s shoulders, tugging him into his side. Naruto tensed for a moment but quickly sagged against him, not trembling thank kami, just taking the comfort offered.

All things considered, that had gone rather well.

Now for the other two.

Why had he ever agreed to this? Damn you Sandaime-sama!

***===***pagebreak***===***

“Sucks that we couldn’t just catch a lift with the ships,” Naruto grumbled, glowering at the ever-smaller ships in question the next morning.

“Maa, we need to finish our mission, Naruto,” Kakashi replied, reading through the coded messages he had taken from the stash. They were tucked into the pages of his book of course, he had a reputation to maintain. It was tantalizingly familiar, and he had gotten a tip from Momoko-san before they departed this morning. Apparently, Uryuu’s unprofessionalism had not won the team any points with the concubine.

An impressive woman, truly.

“Only three more days!” Sakura chirped, nudging Naruto with her elbow. She’d been much more comfortable with initiating contact with him since Kakashi had sat all three of them down for a little chat about kills (one down, two to go). She was taking to the supportive teammate role with gusto – bravo, Sakura-chan. Keep it coming. “And besides, didn’t you want to see some more tide-pools? Maybe there’ll be a sea cucumber in the next ones!”

Kakashi chuckled at the suddenly renewed enthusiasm on Naruto’s part, the boy pelting after Sasuke with a challenging whoop and the Uchiha answering with a glower before picking up the pace, Sakura racing after them with an indignant shout to wait up. For a morning-after, this wasn’t bad. This wasn’t bad at all.

His good mood had soured by the time they’d finished for the day – an early finish, barely midafternoon, because they’d found a beach with truly magnificent tide-pools and he was feeling generous. The reason for his bad mood?

Oh nothing much, he’d simply broken the code on those letters and found that a merchant powerhouse was working to take over Wave and use it as a power base for all sorts of less-than-legal and, even worse, _unauthorized_ operations all along the Hi no Kuni shoreline and even further inland. Gatou Corporation – even _he_ , shinobi-focused as he was, had heard of that civilian powerhouse and now it seemed that the little rat was going to be trying his hand at the management of a nation.

And piss-poor management at that. What sort of labor pool did he expect if he was selling off all the people as slave labor and making them miserable? Easier to be feared than loved, but in the long term, far less profitable. If he were on his own, right now would be the perfect time to execute one of his independently organized solo missions and kill the man, clear out his accounts and leave the entire country of Wave gratefully indebted to Konoha _while_ bringing in a killer profit margin.

But he had three baby genin with him, so his right to spontaneously accept or craft profitable missions for Konoha thanks to the Sandaime’s trust was rightly waived.

But the _potential_ …

“Sensei!” Sakura called, waving him over to a tide-pool, a brilliant smile on her face. “Sensei look! A trapped fish!”

He obediently came over and peered into the pool and she was right, there was indeed a trapped fish. Given her obsessive reading material this past week, he knew just what she was going to ask and he pre-empted her, nodding and saying, “Go for it, Sakura-chan. Good initiative.”

She beamed, crouching down and clearly anchoring herself with chakra to the rocks, reaching in to catch the fish in a flash – good reflexes too. Such improvement!

He kept her struggles with the fish in his peripheral vision while he scanned for Naruto and Sasuke – it seemed they were hunting for dinner. Momoko-san had mentioned that sea urchins were marvelous delicacies and they’d decided they wanted to try it, after Kakashi had confirmed that yes, sea urchins were, in fact, edible with the right preparation.

Not that he really _knew_ the proper preparation beyond the basics of not poisoning yourself, but hey. It’d be an adventure. Had to be better than those blasted mountain-scrabblers from Nami no Kuni.

They had two days until they reached town and concluded their shore-patrol mission. Tomorrow they’d be checking on an outpost, which would have messenger hawks – given distance, if he sent an urgent intelligence update to the Hokage, they’d hopefully have a reply waiting for them in Keiharu Port so he would be able to get instruction as to how to deal with Gatou and the slavery ring they’d disrupted.

There were quite a few things that the hidden villages tolerated that were abhorrent and disgusting to civilians, both in and out of government. Slavery was not one of them.

Brainwashing and child-killers on the other hand, well, for the greater good, neh?

Mentally dismissing that particular line of thought, he turned in time to catch Sakura’s whoop of success with her resurrected fish full on, headband sliding aside as his Sharingan gleamed. Precious memories, he had learned, lessened the burden of memory the Sharingan enforced. Had he been allowed to submit his theories to the Uchiha, he would have suggested activating the Sharingan in pleasurable and amusing situations with an at least one to three ratio for mission activations, particularly those involving kills or other traumatic situations.

Needless to say, he had not ever been able to present this recommendation.

Though now that the Uchiha were gone, there was no telling what he could suggest to his little student. Hmm… something to consider, once his Sharingan was activated.

If Sasuke didn’t manage it on this mission, he might have to request some ANBU assistance in the matter – because if he didn’t arrange it directly, he wasn’t breaking his word to the brats to not set a foreign nin on them, nor was he violating the implicit promise that he wouldn’t set domestic nin on them either, unless they committed a crime.

Also, they were surprisingly good at reading body language and responding to it – if he wasn’t genuinely surprised by the incident in question, he couldn’t guarantee that their subconscious wouldn’t register that as _off_ , which could cause problems down the road. Problems he most certainly didn’t need.

“Neh, sensei!” Naruto bellowed, sprinting across the sand – and not sinking in at all. Excellent, they’d adapted their chakra control exercises to the environment. “We have six sea urchins each, that should be enough to sample, right?”

“Maa, sounds like plenty, Naruto,” Kakashi agreed, “Now congratulate your teammate, she’s done her first successful iryo-jutsu!”

“Wahoo! Go Sakura-chan!” Naruto whooped, beaming at her and bounding up to stare at the flopping fish, “That’s so _awesome_! Hey! Sasuke-teme! Check out what Sakura-chan did!”

Even the Uchiha agreed it was impressive and congratulated her, if with less bouncing around and gleeful whoops of how ‘utterly badass’ she now was. Judging by the brilliant smile and pleased flush on Sakura’s face, both her teammates’ responses were _more_ than appreciated. Which meant she’d work that much harder at iryo-jutsu, and if she combined that with the genjutsus she was getting a taste for –

She would make a lovely infiltrator-assassin when she was older, in multiple senses of the word.

“That’s enough kids, let’s calm down now, or do you not want to learn anything new today?” Kakashi suppressed a snicker as they all immediately quieted down and assembled in front of him, balanced on water-slick rocks as the waves crashed around them. Between Sakura’s struggling fish and the boys’ arms of sea-urchins, they looked like baby uminin!

Sharingan photo-op!

And Sasuke twitched, going wide-eyed at the sight of his family’s dojutsu.

“Sensei – is that – a sharingan?” he asked, clearly only just managing to not stumble over his words entirely.

“Hai,” Kakashi replied, looking over at him with bemused confusion (this was a little surprising after all), “Did you not know I had one?”

“No sensei, I didn’t,” Sasuke replied stiffly, and Kakashi sighed, rolling his uncovered eye to the heavens in a mock prayer for patience (supplemented with a real one, because one could always use a little more patience).

“Ano – the sharingan is the Uchiha bloodline dojutsu, correct?” Sakura asked, fish now deposited back in its tide-pool. “And – isn’t Sasuke the last one?”

“Last one worth mentioning, at least,” Naruto corrected nudging Sasuke with his foot, Sakura nodding agreement.

“He is,” Kakashi agreed, they had a lovely way of putting it after all, “I – received this one from a teammate who was dying to replace the one I lost helping him.”

Obito. _I won’t fail your cousin, not again, not this time,_ he vowed, watching the three exchange glances and the other two flank their shaken teammate protectively. Barely over a month, and they were already doing _so fucking well_ it was incredible. He was either a really good teacher, or they were just a really brilliant bunch.

He knew which one he was laying his money on.

“Maa, well. This is awkward,” Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “Right. Let’s get settled at the campsite and I’ll explain, neh?”

They quietly followed him up to where he’d deposited their stuff with a Naruto-clone as a sentry, the clone dispelling the moment they came into sight and Naruto relaying, “Nothing happened, sensei.”

“Thank you Naruto,” he acknowledged, taking a seat by his pack and lounging against it, the genin dumping their sea urchins in a pile in front of him and clustering around it.

“For prepping those, you split them open, scoop out the soft insides, and cook that,” he informed them, pointing at the pile. Sakura nodded and pulled out his flat pan – she’d quite happily taken over cooking and he was quite happy to let her. She was much better at it than he was – apparently cooking at home was her prime bonding time with her mother.

Naruto and Sasuke agreeably started splitting open sea urchins with their kunai, surprisingly not turning it into a race. They wanted to hear this explanation then – good. They could put aside their rivalry for a common, relatively minor goal.

“Uchiha Obito was my teammate, along with a Nohara Rin,” Kakashi explained, deciding to give them a very, very abbreviated version of what had happened. If they were really interested, he might tell them more later.

Much later.

“On a mission where I had command during the Third War, Rin was captured. During the course of rescuing her, Obito activated his sharingan for the first time, I lost my left eye and one of the enemy nin triggered a cave-in and Obito shoved me out of the way of collapsing rock and was crushed,” Kakashi inhaled deeply and continued as casually as he could, “He wasn’t killed immediately and requested that Rin, a medic herself, transplant his left sharingan eye into my eye-socket – eye for an eye, and then he’d get to see the world even after he passed. There was some conflict with the Uchiha clan over whether I would keep his eye, but it was decided that Obito’s dying wish would be respected, though there was always some tension regarding it. That is why I am surprised it was never mentioned to you, Sasuke – your father was… rather vocal, in accusing me of line-theft.”

Sasuke flinched slightly at the mention of his father, but nodded slowly, “I see his point. But other Uchiha have left their eyes to relatives before – if the transplant held, it showed you were worthy of the honor. And now – that’s why you were picked as our sensei.”

“One of multiple reasons,” Kakashi agreed, “The main one, and the main reason that the council gave me that blasted order.”

“Fucking asshats,” Naruto grumbled, before perking up, “Hey sensei – I had an idea for team training!”

Raising an eyebrow at the shift in tone, Kakashi asked, “Oh?”

“Yeah!” Naruto gave a grin that was unnerving in its potential for sheer chaos, “Prank the council! It’d give us a good background for future sabotage and espionage missions, and depending on the prank an argument could be made that they give us experience in things like assassination, trap building and escape and evasion, _all at the same time_!”

He flung his shelled sea urchin in the air, a beaming grin on his face, “Come on sensei, it’s genius!”

“It is a good point,” Sakura agreed virtuously, the innocent air she projected utterly ruined by the gleam in her eyes, “It would be a good exercise, I think, sensei. Sasuke?”

“Hn,” was enough of a response, the interested smirk on his face confirmed his interest.

Kakashi wanted to laugh, because how utterly _Uzumaki_ of the boy. He didn’t see why not, but he saw no reason they wouldn’t have to work for it.

“We’ll need to run it by the Hokage, but in the meantime, scheme away,” Kakashi shrugged, “Just know if you are caught, I disown all responsibility and you will pay your time however the authorities deem fit.”

“So, like an off the book mission?” Sasuke asked slyly, Naruto whooping and Sakura stifling a giggle. Kakashi let a chuckle escape at that, leaning back against his pack contentedly. Any thoughts of learning something new from him vanished as they started debating just what they should do and which members they should target – or if they should go for broke and prank the whole place.

Politics, infiltration, sabotage, traps and sheer, unadulterated audacity.

Team-building indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where did Momoko come from? No freaking clue. But she seems to fit! Next two chapters are getting some polish and then they'll be up too - definitely before thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Americans! :)
> 
> Don't go expecting that kind of binge updating in the future though, kay? Hope you enjoy!


	8. Crashing Waves

“Thank you, shinobi-san, for this message’s secure delivery,” the head of the merchant household they’d been sent to bowed slightly, the three genin returning it and Kakashi inclining his head – as a jounin, he had a fair bit more leeway when it came to courtesy, and he was familiar with this merchant anyway, he wouldn’t be expecting it from him.

“If there is anything else?” he asked leadingly, eyeing the three genin for just a moment before directing his question to Kakashi, as he should.

“Maa – I am curious, have the merchant fleet and the captured pirates arrived and been dealt with?”

“Oh yes, they arrived yesterday morning, Hatake-dono,” the man bobbed his head, “Now that the official business is out of the way, might I invite yourself and your students for tea?”

“Much appreciated, Naka-san,” now he bowed – slightly, but he bowed. He was no longer acting as a jounin of Konoha, after all. The Naka family had been old contacts of the Hatake clan, and while he didn’t do much with his mantle of the headship, he took care of those that had at one point relied upon the clan for protection. There was only so much he could do, as one man, but he helped where he could.

Undoubtedly, Sandaime-sama had been well aware of this when he’d chosen to give them this mission. He’d have to bring the man some Wave country tobacco in thanks; it had been a while since he’d had a chance to cultivate this particular connection.

The genin, predictably, perked up at the formality and Sakura immediately bent Naruto’s ear, hissing that he needed to follow Sasuke’s example or _so help her_ – Kakashi listened with a small smile, Naka Hikaru’s crinkling eyes indicating he heard her as well and was, fortunately, amused. He’d have to work on their volume control, it seemed.

Thankfully, Naka did not hold an entirely formal tea ceremony, though it was evident by Naruto’s wide eyes and very, _very_ careful mimicking of Sasuke that he felt entirely out of his element. Good thing he knew some old operatives that owned teashops back in Konoha, because they’d need to develop some social graces, especially if Naruto was really serious about this Hokage business.

Kakashi hoped so. The _faces_ of the council members if he ascended would _definitely_ be a Sharingan-worthy moment.

Pleasantries exchanged and out of the way, Hikaru set his tea aside and sighed happily, the black-haired man smiling as he reported, “The pirates have all been sentenced to execution or very long hard-labor terms, it’s unlikely they will survive in those cases. The freed slaves have been sheltered and are being offered a portion of the loot from the pirates liberated funds as well as transport home. Interestingly, none are interested in the latter offer.”

Kakashi nodded and offered his own information in response, “It has come to my attention that one Gatou Corporation is taking advantage of Wave’s isolated nature to claim power and oppress all forms of competition with a decidedly Iwa touch.”

Hikaru’s nose wrinkled in distaste, the man saying, “Marvelous. I don’t suppose Konoha would be willing to deal with the situation without being called in?”

“I cannot comment on that,” Kakashi said with true regret, inclining his head towards his team, “As you can see, I have different responsibilities now.”

“I am pleased to see Hatake-dono is passing on his knowledge to the future generations,” Hikaru informed the genin, before an impish look came into his eyes and Kakashi suppressed a groan – he knew where this was going, “Though I would be far _more_ pleased if he actually _produced_ said future generation, it seems I will have to settle for descendants of teachings, if not of blood.”

Sakura was the only one who blushed at that, the boys just looking distinctly uncomfortable, but Sakura was also the only one who managed to respond, “We will do our best to be worthy of the honor, Naka-san.”

“Very smooth,” Hikaru said approvingly, “And well said, young kunoichi. You have much better social graces than your sensei did at your age.”

There was one problem with seeing old contacts with students in tow, Kakashi reflected ruefully, they knew all the old stories. Or at least all the old stories that weren’t classified beyond belief, but those would be more than enough to ignite his genin’s curiousity, evident by the intent interest clear on their faces at that hint.

“As for Gatou – I’m afraid all I’ve heard are rumors, rumors of nukenin, mercenaries and shady deals,” Hikaru shook his head, “I do not deal with products from Wave much. I will see what I can rustle up from those in my circle who do, and shall get back to you. Are you staying at an inn?”

“Yes, the usual,” Kakashi informed him, rising to his feet and his genin following; Hikaru sighed and stood, not minding the breaking of protocol in the least beyond the fact he realized he couldn’t tease anymore. Victory was his, this round.

“Very well, I will contact you tomorrow? Do stop by if you need to depart before I reach you, my wife will never forgive me if she is not able to see you while you are here, and she would love to meet your genin,” Hikaru said, escorting them to the door personally.

Kakashi sighed and nodded, knowing better than to object. Besides, he wouldn’t exactly _mind_ seeing Naka Maiko again, she was just… very exuberant.

One of his more memorable nightmares was imagining her meeting Gai, after all.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Sasuke was eyeing their sensei thoughtfully while they ate food obtained from a random street vendor – not ramen, thank kami sensei had put his foot down on that (though how he was eating without showing his face… genjutsu?). Sakura was dragging them through the markets, anxious to inspect wares and compare prices and tugging Naruto after her – supposedly to help judge things, in reality in the hopes she’d find pants to force him into in a color other  than neon orange.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to do anything for that particular self-appointed mission of hers, which left him free to mull over the things he’d learned on this mission.

And not just jutsus, though the genjutsu sensei had taught Sakura was interesting, and the basics of fuuinjutsu he’d taught all of them was _useful_ in the extreme – and the chakra-string technique he’d started him on with changing kunai direction midflight was, dare he say it, _cool_ – no, what was most interesting were the things they’d learned about their _sensei_ in this week and a half.

Because in hindsight, it was obvious that the man’s introduction had been so lacking not only because it would frustrate them, but because he didn’t plan to let them pass – both because of the teamwork emphasis and because of the council. Sasuke figured they should count themselves lucky sensei hadn’t just said screw the test and failed them anyway to spite the council. It would probably have been easy enough to just not give them that second chance.

But in spite of that lacking introduction, a picture of just who sensei was had been filling out, slowly but surely, and a lot of that had clicked into place this week.

He was clearly a former ANBU, and probably a former Captain in that force, if his mention of Ita – of _that man_ as a subordinate and pupil meant anything. He was just as clearly an extremely skilled and valued shinobi, in addition to his self-professed genius – the two did not necessarily go together. He was a decent teacher, disclaimers aside, and was willing to help them actually reach _their goals_ rather than his or some nebulous point where he’d stop teaching them.

He also had a sharingan, and a mastered sharingan at that. They had all wondered just why he covered his face and what had happened to his eye – Sakura in particular, seeing as how narrowly she had avoided a similar fate. Finding out that he had a sharingan – and that he used the sharingan to take mental pictures of utterly random occurrences – had been shocking in the extreme, and, at first, infuriating. Sensei had said he _wasn’t_ going to lie to them, but what the hell had this been?

His explanation had made sense of that, at least, and left Sasuke numbly wondering about what he would have done if his father had won that argument years ago, and sensei hadn’t kept his sharingan. How would he have learned? He had scrolls, certainly, he’d figure it out, he was sure – but it would take a lot longer, and he wanted to advance _now_.

He couldn’t, he knew that, but he ached to. At this age, Itachi had nearly been a jounin! A member of ANBU! He was _so far_ behind, sometimes it felt like he’d never catch up!

A hand on his shoulder brought him out of his despairing musings and he looked up to meet his sensei’s concerned gaze, “All right there Sasuke?” the man asked, and what could he do but nod? They were in a public place after all.

He nodded, and his sensei released his shoulder with a final pat before returning to his hentai book. Such a weird sensei.

And to think, this man was called _dono_! Was given the respect owed a clan head! Sure, Sasuke was sort of aware that there was a Hatake clan listed in Konoha, but sensei was the only member he’d ever heard of, and was apparently the only member _period_ if what Naka-san had implied was true, but he was still treated with the respect owed a clan head by _civilians_! And judging by the implications of their conversation during tea, the Nakas considered themselves a form of vassal to him, and to his clan, which meant he held them under his protection. His _personal_ protection, given the state of his clan as a whole.

It was – heartening. In a way. That a clan could be respected, could fulfill its duties, even when only one person was holding its banner.

Maybe his dream of an honorable and restored clan _wasn’t_ entirely out of his reach.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Sakura hadn’t expected _Naruto_ , of all people, to be her ideal shopping buddy.

But really, he was! He was interested in random trinkets, just like she was, and had no problem with modeling the occasional bit of clothing she thought would look good on him so long as she returned the favor, and he wasn’t even perverted about it! He was honest, telling her that the red scarf she’d fingered didn’t go with her hair _at all_ and accepted her judgment that the orange jacket he so longingly stared at was entirely unacceptable and wasn’t the same shade as his pants _anyway_ so it didn’t work.

They bantered about various wares and had a good time picking out the most obnoxiously awful thing possible to force the other into ( _why_ did that one vendor have a stock of spandex leotards in lime green? Seriously, _why_?). They chatted frankly about prices and quality and Sakura happily dickered with a few of the merchants, teaching Naruto the finer points of cheerful bargaining.

He even looked like he was having _fun_ , just like she was! It was no fun shopping with someone who was secretly miserable, eventually they gave it away, but Naruto seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself! Which was _perfect_ , because it let Sasuke and sensei wander after them without actually interacting with anyone and she got to _fully_ enjoy the market without bothering them.

She’d _have_ to drag him to the flea market in Konoha one day, especially after they got their C-rank paycheck! Sure, she had fewer expenses than he did because her parents still housed her and fed her, but surely Naruto could afford to splurge a _little_ bit, on something _besides_ ramen.

Maybe if she sold it as part of their prank preparation…

Well, something to consider for later.

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto said, voice awed.

The last time he’d sounded like that, it had been the most gaudy orange and yellow feathered monstrosity of a dress she’d ever seen. And no one, she meant _no one_ was ever going to know she tried it on.

Bracing herself, she ducked down the remnant clothes merchant’s aisles to find him, and found Naruto holding up a fitted navy blue turtleneck, of all things.

“Naruto?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, “What’s so special about the shirt?”

“Watch!” he whispered, holding up the neck part and showing that it was extra-long. It was so long, in fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if it covered… his…. face…

“No. Way.”

“We have to get one,” he said seriously.

“We have to get _three,”_ she grinned, “And a camera.”

“Genius!” he hissed, holding his treasure to the heavens. “Come on, quick! Before the other two come in here to see what’s taking us so long!”

It was a matter of moments to get the extra-long turtlenecks in the appropriate sizes, and she was _certain_ they were even the exact shade of navy blue. Maybe these were leftovers from when he was a child and special ordered them or something? The place _did_ sell clothes that regular merchants couldn’t get rid of after all…

Nah, that was just ridiculous. They wouldn’t hold onto things like this for _that long_. Sensei was _old_!

After due consideration, they ended up buying six of the shirts and an orange hat that Naruto just couldn’t live without. The merchant had happily wrapped their purchases and given them a tip on a good place to buy a camera.

“Good thing sensei taught me storage scrolls yesterday,” Naruto said, sealing up their purchases behind the counter – the merchant was fascinated and gave them a discount for the demo! – “Otherwise they’d be way suspicious!”

“This is going to be awesome!” Sakura grinned, “Thanks for your help!” she called to the merchant as they scampered out the door, gleefully heading for the camera booth.

Good thing they’d packed money from the D-ranks, that’s all she had to say.

That night, Naruto had distracted sensei with questions about explosive tags – not a conversation you’d want to leave Naruto hanging on, because otherwise he’d probably _experiment_ , so Sakura was able to pull Sasuke aside and present him with the two shirts roughly his size and explain the plan.

She considered it a very good sign that he just looked at her and smirked. Good. He was in.

Tomorrow morning was going to be _epic_.

***===***pagebreak***===***

“How does he _do_ this, seriously?” Naruto’s voice echoed down the steps of the inn, and Kakashi sighed, turning the page in his book. He had been waiting down here for thirty minutes, already eating his share of breakfast because he’d woken up far before his baby genin needed to.

Judging by the extensive clattering and clanging that had come the moment he’d heard their room’s door creak open, he hadn’t missed much.

Just as he was debating putting away his book and seeing what the heck was taking his students so long, he heard a choked laugh from the inn-keeper and snickers from the other early risers. “Morning Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto bellowed, and Kakashi looked over only to feel his jaw literally drop.

All three genin were standing there, wearing navy-blue turtlenecks in the _exact_ extra-long style he had been special ordering for years, covering half their faces with their hita-ates worn across their left eyes.

It was… hilariously adorable, actually.

Sharingan photo!

“Seriously sensei, I have so much more respect for you now – I have nearly killed myself, Sakura-chan, _and_ Sasuke-teme _so many times_ with the one eye thing! How do you do this? How do you _fight_ like this? I can’t even walk without tripping over myself!” Naruto exclaimed, waving his arms around and nearly whacking Sakura in the face.

“Practice,” Kakashi replied dryly, shaking his head ruefully as he considered his genin. His utterly ridiculous, pranking _team_ of genin. “So this is what you and Sakura were snickering over last night.”

“Got a sweet deal on them too!” Sakura’s beaming expression was uncannily like his own with the mask – she’d probably practiced. “And… a camera! Team picture! Please Innkeeper-san?” she held out the camera she’d hidden behind her back and the man accepted, still snickering as the three genin carefully made their way over to him.

He ruffled the two boy’s hair and beamed at the camera, Sakura leaning against his legs and throwing a victory sign while the boys crossed their arms and tried to look tough and implacable. Judging by the innkeeper’s increasingly violent snickers, it wasn’t entirely successful.

“Thanks!” Sakura chirped, taking the small camera back and handing it to Naruto, who tucked it away in one of his pockets before they clambered into seats to start breakfast.

“Well, eat up you three, we have to go visit Naka-san before we head out,” Kakashi said, shaking his head in bemusement as he returned to his book.

“Neh, sensei, since we’re going to show you _our_ faces, will you show us yours?” Naruto grinned, squinting eyes unmistakably part of that expression.

“You realize that doesn’t work when I’ve _seen_ your faces already, yes?” he replied dryly, “Besides, I already ate. Better luck next time, kids.”

“Kuso, so close!” Sakura cursed, but the three quickly adjusted their hita-ates and pulled down their masks so they could devour the food he’d bought them.

He’d thought that was the end of it.

When he was brought into Hikaru’s home again, he knew he was mistaken when he heard Maiko squeal, “They’re so adorable!”

Sighing, he resigned himself to a long, ear-piercing conversation.

But he couldn’t keep from smiling.

***===***pagebreak***===***

That smile was long gone by the time they were heading out of Keiharu Port later that morning, the three genin equally grim, turtlenecks down and hita-ates in their usual places. He had a feeling this was going to be a running gag though, the reactions had been too good for Naruto and Sakura to give it up, and while he was deeply surprised (though very, very pleased) that Sasuke had agreed to be involved, it was likely that he’d keep it up too. Maybe not inside Konoha, but depending on how well Naruto sold it as the ‘ultimate teamwork exercise’, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Actually, goofing off together – especially something so elegantly coordinated and team focused as _this –_ it was perfect for those purposes.

Now the question was if Naruto had consciously calculated this prank for that effect or simply retroactively realized this effect for that prank. Either would present some very interesting options for future cultivation.

Despite Maiko’s glee at their appearance (and the many, _many_ pictures she’d taken with her own and Sakura’s camera) (oh kami, candid shots, why?) Hikaru’s news had quickly brought the mood down. All reports indicated that Gatou was a full-fledged crime lord, and no one had brought him to heel because he had dealings with multiple nukenin and was rumored to be in bed with quite a few political powerhouses in multiple nations. Unsanctioned in the extreme, he was sure, or at least they would be, if they ever came to light, but effective.

Annoying? Yes. There had been nothing regarding this in intelligence for the region, which meant _someone_ had dropped the ball.

Something he needed to worry about? Not at the time.

That had quickly changed when a red-banded hawk had dropped down the moment they stepped into the streets and left him with a scroll marked ‘urgent’.

It seemed the team they’d needed to beat had taken a C-rank to guard a bridge builder named Tazuna on his journey home to Wave.

And they’d encountered two nuke-nin on the way, the Demon Brothers of Mist, revealing that the mission had been misranked. Nevertheless, they had pressed on, after getting the details from this Tazuna.

If they pulled it off, it would be glorious – Wave would be indebted to Konoha _severely_ , the genin team would receive a huge boost of confidence and recognition and the sensei would undoubtedly win ‘most epic first C-rank’ for the year.

But he found it very, very unlikely they would pull it off.

Because he’d been keeping his ear to the ground regarding nukenin movements after that whole escaped Iwa-nin fiasco and figuring while he was there, may as well see if anyone knew what Itachi was up to, and he knew who the Demon Brothers were working for.

Momochi Zabuza was _not_ an opponent to drag genin against.

“Sensei, how are we getting to Wave?” Sakura asked, putting on a brief burst of speed to run alongside him. He’d have to carry her soon, and probably get a clone to carry Sasuke. Naruto’s endurance was simply ridiculous.

“Hikaru gave me directions to a contact of his that owed him and would be willing to take us across,” Kakashi explained shortly, “Once we arrive, we’re going to _stay together_ and search out Team Ten. Naruto will send out clones, as will I, but you three are _staying with me_ , got it?”

All three nodded, understanding that he was deathly serious this time. He had told them who they’d be facing, and just what that meant.

This was no time for screwing around, of _any_ sort.

“Work on a plan to protect Tazuna and any downed member of Team Ten. Sakura – no iryo-jutsus. Fish are much less dangerous to experiment with than people, if you do the slightest thing wrong you could seriously screw up their chakra network, all right? Basic medical care only, no chakra, got it?”

“Hai sensei!”

“Sasuke, Naruto, if she gives medical care, it’s your job to cover her and ensure the objective is met,” Kakashi frowned, “That objective being Tazuna, safely at home, and team ten alive. So long as he gets home safely, Team Ten’s mission is complete and I could care less about what happens to him next, but Team Ten alive is the _priority_. If you have to choose between him alive and Team Ten, Team Ten, all right? He lied to us, he misled us as to rank and it is _his fault_ that these genin, these _comrades_ , are in danger from the likes of Momochi. Do not pity him.”

“Hai sensei,” all three replied, equally grim.

It wouldn’t last, he knew it wouldn’t. Once they came face to face with the man, had time to truly come to terms with the plight of Wave, they’d be tugged, they’d be empathetic, they’d be merciful and they’d forgive.

But first, they had to get Team Ten out alive.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Naruto was _angry_.

He listened to Sasuke and Sakura plot, inserting his own ideas and confirming their questions as to his Kage bunshin’s capabilities occasionally, but the majority of his focus was on _thinking_ past the seething fury building in his gut. Sensei had told them the standard policy for C-ranks, and told them about the ‘C-rank curse’ where the first C-rank always, _always_ went wrong.

Theirs had gone wrong when they intercepted another team’s mission and fought off pirates. Their second one had gone perfectly smooth and they’d gotten some laughs out of sensei!

Apparently that wasn’t enough though, because now jiji had given them orders to go and aid another team who apparently had gotten a triple helping of C-rank curse! Team Ten! The team they’d needed to _beat_ to get to a C-rank had taken one to Wave, a place that Momoko-san had said most of the people were taken from with a funny look on her face and if what sensei said was right she had been hinting that there was more wrong than just one pirate crew.

And now, if sensei was right, and by now Naruto knew enough to figure he probably was, they were running straight for an at least A-rank nukenin from Kiri, called “Demon of the Mist” and any other accomplices he may have, in addition to the mercenaries that weren’t shinobi.

Given that the _kyuubi_ was a demon, he didn’t really want to know what a _person_ had to do to get that title. Thankfully, no one else had asked.

“Okay, sensei, I think we have a plan,” Sakura said quietly, sensei shifting slightly to look at them but not moving from his position on the small boat. They were crammed together, the fisherman slash smuggler that Naka-san had directed them too being very clear that they needed to stay where he put them because there were shallows here that weight-distribution was _vital_ to avoid.

“Naruto and you send out clones – we were thinking twelve for Naruto? – they scatter and try to find Team Ten. The one that does dispels and the others split, half coming to us, half going to Team Ten. If things get dicey, Team Ten runs into opposition, they make it home, whatever changes – then the ones with Team Ten dispel one by one so we get updates constantly. We weren’t sure if Naruto should approach them but we figured it’d be best to not and stay a surprise for anything that goes wrong – unless he gets caught or something, then he shows up and explains we’re here to back them up,” Sakura explained.

Sasuke continued grimly, “At that point it depends on the situation. If they’re in combat, we figured the priority was to get the enemy down – especially if it’s Momochi Zabuza. Naruto says he can kawarimi with people pretty well and his clones can too – we were thinking if Zabuza’s there and relatively immobile, one of the clones with us can switch with him and while he’s disoriented he should be easier to take down.”

Naruto _liked_ that plan. He liked it a lot. Got Team Ten out of the worst of the danger, stat, disoriented said worst of the danger to the point sensei could hopefully take him out pretty easily – fingers crossed no C-rank curse came into play _now_ too! – and he played a crucial role while also buffering his teammates.

He’d be the one running around and sending clones to fight, and hopefully Sakura and Sasuke wouldn’t have to kill on this mission either. Because killing sucked.

“Who have you switched with before, Naruto? And your clones?” sensei asked, Naruto hesitating before replying, “Uh – Mizuki-teme, in a prank. And Kiba, once or twice.”

“Hmm. Kawarimi is an interesting jutsu, in that while you can use it to substitute with living things, and even people, it’s far easier with dead things, such as pre-cut logs,” Kakashi explained lowly, his hands in ‘ram’ – what was he using chakra for right now?

“This is because of chakra. Replacing something with greater chakra than your own is extremely dangerous to both parties involved. Your chakra capacity is immense, Naruto, which is the only reason this didn’t backfire on you. But why is the kage bunshin so dangerous?”

Naruto had to scramble for that answer, rage finally subsiding to a grumble in the back of his mind as he now had a distraction – he’d only read the scroll in question once after all, and hadn’t really understood all the words that had gone into the warnings – he’d been more worried about the instructions. “Uh.. it splits your chakra, right? So if I make one clone, it has more chakra than if I make three clones?”

“Exactly,” sensei nodded, eye-smiling at him and Naruto felt a burst of pride at that confirmation. “Which is the reason it’s a kinjutsu and Sakura and Sasuke don’t have enough chakra for even one yet. Now, with that in mind, can any of you tell me why it would be odd for one of Naruto’s clones to be able to kawarimi with a jounin-level opponent like Zabuza?”

“Shinobi-san, we’re within a mile,” the smuggler hissed, oars pulling in while the man started to pole along the shallows. Kakashi-sensei nodded, saying softly, “Think about it, I’ll ask again later. No more talking now, I can’t keep this jutsu up.”

His fingers released the hand-sign and Naruto could suddenly hear the water against the boat, smell the salt in the air and the terror this smuggler was working past. That… that was a scary jutsu – if it made them invisible or at least let them talk without too much worry, it was useful, but it cut them off too – how would they have known if they were approaching danger?

Naruto shook that thought off and started thinking on the question Kakashi-sensei had asked. Kawarimi was dangerous if you didn’t have as much or more chakra than the thing you were replacing – that explained a lot. Now if only someone had actually explained that in class! You’d think it’d come up in a lecture on dangers or something and he _always_ paid attention to jutsu lectures if he was actually allowed to stay for them.

Well, maybe that’s what had happened. Whatever, take it as given that he had more chakra than Mizuki-teme and Kiba (ha!) because he could switch with them without hurting himself. He’d guess that a jounin, like this Zabuza jerk, would have more chakra, maybe even more than him. So that made sense – and if his clones split his chakra, that meant they had less chakra than he did, right? Which meant if _he_ couldn’t switch with the guy, they definitely wouldn’t be able to.

But if he only made _two_ clones, one could find the guy, the other could stay with him, and then that clone could try switching and if it _did_ hurt, he’d get the memories of what happened but wouldn’t actually be damaged himself. Yeah, the memories would probably suck, if it didn’t work, but the plan would still be there and the only people at risk would be his clone and the Zabuza guy.

Maybe he could do the twelve clones and then if one found Team Ten fighting, they all dispelled and he made two new clones, one to go find Team Ten and Zabuza again and the other to stick around and do the kawarimi?

Yeah, that seemed solid. Man, if he had been kicked out for the kawarimi lectures, that meant he probably missed stuff on the other two too! Now he’d have to go find the textbook and handouts to see what he’d missed.

Maybe Sakura-chan or Sasuke-teme could explain it. He didn’t want sensei to think he was an idiot; the academy was just so _boring_!

***===***pagebreak***===***

Kakashi was not happy.

He hadn’t been happy when this order had come in, granted, but now he was unhappy about something _besides_ the mission the Sandaime had issued so at least he had something else to sink his brain into. There wasn’t much more he could work on with Gatou and the Wave situation until they got on the ground and he had a chance to get more information anyway.

But the genin had come up with a decent plan, except for one thing.

It seemed none of them understood the dangers of kawarimi with a living creature, much less a trained shinobi with developed chakra coils.

Taking into account the fact Naruto had said he’d done it before, Kakashi gave the Academy curriculum the benefit of slight doubt. After all, if Naruto had done these people-kawarimi’s in front of witnesses, it was entirely possible the students ignored that part of the lecture because clearly if the class idiot could do it, it wasn’t that hard.

That didn’t _excuse_ them in the least, because they should have, if anything, _emphasized_ the dangers so no other students decided to try it and subsequently destroy their chakra coils. But it gave them a little leeway.

Sakura though, she read that textbook backward to front and some of her answers to his questions were still word-for-word from the book (he’d checked once out of curiosity). So if there was mention of the dangers of kawarimi (as there damn well _should be_ ) she’d remember it. But it didn’t even occur to her that Naruto would be in danger in this plan; if it had, she’d have mentioned it and the plan wouldn’t have been presented as finished. She’d have at least asked him if the idea was feasible first.

Now, given this disturbing lack of information, what else had his students been mis-taught or entirely _not_ taught in that Academy of theirs?

Damn it, he’d have to actually _read_ that stupid textbook at this rate. And _thoroughly_.

This teaching business sucked, seriously. Even if his baby genin were kind of adorable. Occasionally.

The shoreline came into foggy view and the smuggler stopped his boat, Kakashi having told him they would water-walk the rest of the way. He left money behind – a tip, if anything, seeing as Hikaru had let him cash in on one of his favors for this – and stepped out of the boat, genin following him and following his lead in bowing to the smuggler-fisherman before heading for the shore, none of them saying a word.

Deciding to test them, he flicked his fingers in reasonably slow hand-signs and allowed himself a moment of smug contentment when they fell into the exact formation he wanted. A diamond with him at point, Naruto in the back, Sakura on his right with Sasuke on his left; arranged primarily because the two boys could take more damage than Sakura could at the moment or at least hold their own for a little longer.

They reached the beach, none of them leaving prints in the sand as they ducked into the forests, Kakashi finally signaling a stop and indicating with a short gesture that Sasuke was to stand watch while the other two crouched down with him and he murmured, “Now, thoughts on the kawarimi question? Naruto?”

The blonde perked up and said softly, “Jounin have more chakra than the others I’ve done this with, and clones have less chakra than me, so it might be that a kawarimi won’t work. But sensei – what if we found them with the twelve clones, but then _all_ of them dispelled and I made two more, one to stay with us, one to find them again and when there was an opportune moment, the clone with them dispelled and the clone with us tried it? If it hurts Zabuza-san, just as well – and I wouldn’t be damaged myself, even though the memories will probably suck. And if it works – awesome, right?”

Kakashi wished he could do more than smile at the boy and say, “Well thought. That should work to fix the flaw.”

Judging by the glow in the boy’s eyes and Sakura’s murmured, “Nice one, Naruto!” that gesture was more than enough.

Good, because this was the kind of critical thinking and planning he wanted all of them to develop at least the basics of. He quickly made four clones and Naruto furrowed his brow before quietly murmuring the jutsu’s name and making twelve. He was much better at controlling numbers – at the start of their C-ranks he hadn’t been able to make less than five with any precision. Now, the two clone plan was actually feasible.

Kakashi rose to his feet and gestured for them to fall in again, continuing at an easy pace even as the clones disappeared in all directions. The smuggler had at least been familiar with Tazuna and the bridge and had brought them to the right island, so there was that worry taken care of.

Of course, it was the biggest island of all of them, but that was just typical.

They hadn’t gone much longer when Naruto stopped, hissing, “Shit!” even as he created two clones, one taking off to their northwest.

“Engaged with Zabuza?” Kakashi asked shortly, none of his clones had been with the one that had found them, all four dispelling when the Narutos started killing themselves. Naruto nodded and Kakashi eyed the clone, saying, “Move, kids.”

They darted back just as the clone’s eyes snapped open, fingers flying as he said, “Kawarimi no jutsu!”

More smoke than usual but the figure that was left was definitely not a distended or destroyed Naruto clone.

“What the – gurgle,” Zabuza collapsed, throat cut and Kakashi covered his Sharingan, watching dispassionately as the now dead man crumpled to the floor, massive sword thudding into the ground.

“Naruto?”

“Fine sensei!” Naruto chirped from his perch in a tree, “One clone’s staying with them to make sure things are okay – “

“Sensei!” Sakura screamed, Kakashi jolting at the note of terror in her voice and bolting for it, Naruto hard on his heels.

Sharingan blazing, he flew into the fight, a kick launching the hunter-nin away from Sasuke, a senbon riddled arm laying slack on the ground but the Uchiha had left his own marks on the Kiri-nin, Sakura darting in with her medical kit unsealed and ready while Naruto crouched over them, a feral snarl on his face.

_Hunter-nin attacking Sasuke_ , he mused, blocking senbon with the kunai stained with Zabuza’s blood and weaving through those he couldn’t quite get – kunai on the ground suddenly flung at the hunter-nin, _well done Sasuke, good use of chakra strings_ – opening in the next four seconds three two o – what the fuck was that?!

Flare of chakra behind – the genin!

“No!” Naruto shouted, Kakashi already reversed and sprinting for them, hunter-nin springing out of a block of ice ready to strike a killing blow Naruto was bleeding red _not my baby genin you fucking_ chirp _faker_ chirp _done_!

“Oh that’s gross,” Sakura said, Kakashi keeping his eyes locked on the hunter-nin he’d speared through the chest with his arm, barely hearing the faint, “Zabuza-sama,” that served as the boy’s last words.

Shoving the now dead-weight off his arm, he turned to his genin, “Status?”

All three of them were splattered in the dead fake’s blood, Sakura offering him a scowl before saying, “I think Sasuke’s been hit in paralysis points. I’ve removed a couple of them, they’re not poisoned. I’m uninjured.”

“Uninjured,” Naruto growled, Kakashi casting him a sharp look and swearing mentally – that hadn’t been the red of blood, not entirely. Shit.

“Naruto,” he said, putting some chakra into his voice in a calming technique he’d stolen from medics. “Your teammates are safe. You have completed the mission. You protected your team. Your teammates are safe.”

Naruto took a few shuddering breaths and the ruddy red chakra his Sharingan could just see faded, darkened whisker marks lightening to their usual traces and eyes losing the slitted quality that was damned unnerving. “Sorry sensei,” Naruto shivered, “I – uh – was just angry and – um. Yeah.”

“We’ll talk later, you did well, Naruto,” he reassured him, turning his attention to Sasuke and asking, “You, Sasuke?”

“Just my arm,” Sasuke grumbled, “Sorry sensei.”

“No need to apologize, you did very well,” Kakashi caught a red glint in his student’s eyes and he chuckled ruefully, “Very well indeed.”

Tossing a kunai – at a speed Sakura could intercept easily if he was wrong – he was pleased to see Sasuke’s eyes flare into the Sharingan and the kunai get caught in moments. Sakura cut off her demand of what the hell that had been with a gasp, “Sasuke! Your eyes!”

“You got them teme!” Naruto whooped, “Magic eyes of doom!”

Sasuke’s shocked pride subsided at that and he glowered, “The sharingan is an honored dojutsu, not _magic eyes of doom_ , dobe.”

“Maa, I don’t know Sasuke-kun,” Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully after he slid his hita-ate back down, “I rather like _magic eyes of doom_.”

“Well, for you it’d be magic _eye_ of doom, sensei,” Sakura giggled at Sasuke’s glowering pout – there really were no other words for it. “There’s the last senbon gone! From what I read, you should regain mobility in a few hours. Let me know if it starts hurting really bad, and I’ll check mobility in a bit. Now what, sensei?”

“Now we go find Team Ten, after sealing up the corpses,” Kakashi said, pulling out one of his black and red trimmed scrolls – black and red for enemies, black and gold for allies – and sealing up the hunter-nin. “We’ll go over the bodies once Team Ten is secured and their mission complete. Help Sasuke gather up his weapons and meet me at Zabuza’s corpse.”

“Yes sensei!” They chorused, rising to their feet and getting started.

None of them seemed too bothered by the blood scattered on them. He’d remind them of it and have them wash up after they met with Team Ten and that Tazuna who’d gotten them into this mess. Seeing children covered in blood might just drive home the kind of _error_ he’d made in lying to shinobi.

And emphasized their deadliness and _teamwork_ to Team Ten, both genin and jounin-sensei. The team that killed together stayed together, after all.

“And Naruto? Make sure you have Sakura’s scar story ready to go!”

“Hai sensei!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more cuteness, and then they finally got to Wave!
> 
> ...Please don't kill me! (ducks for cover)


	9. Scoping out the Competition

They could hear Team Ten before they could see them. Sasuke suppressed a shudder and double checked his expression was blank and calm; Sakura may not be a fan-girl anymore (he owed sensei _big_ for that) but he remembered what she and Ino had been like.

Hopefully, Ino had grown up too.

And if she hadn’t, then he could at the least hope Sakura didn’t revert at seeing her ‘ultimate fan-girl rival’ in person.

They had rivals in who was the better _fan-girl_. What was _wrong_ with girls? Did the extra X-chromosome make them more susceptible to insanity?

“Baka! This is _our_ mission!” Ino screeched.

Naruto stumbled, shaking his head and growling, before saying, “She just killed my clone! Damn, sensei – you go first.”

Kakashi-sensei just chuckled and nodded, jumping down from the trees and they followed his lead, falling into the diamond formation he’d set them in earlier today. It made sense after all, especially now that Sasuke had his sharingan to cover his left.

The three genin and one apparently seriously tired jounin were arrayed around a pale-faced civilian man who took one look at them and flinched, taking a half-step back. Ino spotted it and rounded on them, opening her mouth to start shouting again when sensei flared his killing intent and said, “Enough, Yamanaka- _chan_.”

She shut her mouth with a gulp and the oppressive atmosphere lifted, sensei clearly giving his stupid eye-smile as he said, “Maa, Asuma-san, what are you doing on the ground? Sleeping on the job?”

“Shut up Hatake,” the man panted, “Momochi Zabuza was definitely not a pushover. He dead?”

“Taken care of, as was his accomplice,” sensei said breezily, “Injuries?”

“Minor cuts for me, mostly chakra exhaustion,” the jounin-sensei, Asuma, apparently, groaned, “My kids are fine. Yours?”

“Eh, blood’s not theirs,” sensei shrugged and Sakura squawked, “What?! I still have blood all over me? Ewww! Sasuke, Naruto, why didn’t you say anything?!”

“…Because we thought you knew?” Naruto said hesitantly, “Ah! Please don’t kill me!” he hid behind Sasuke and the Uchiha sighed, knowing what they were doing.

Mocking arguments and banter – a sign of teamwork. An entertaining one, at least, so he’d suffer through it silently. It was working after all, Team Ten’s genin looked at least interested, if not perturbed, and that civilian looked nauseous.

“Grrr…”

“Sakura, enough,” sensei said quietly, “We’ll all clean up once we get Tazuna-san home and Team Ten rested up and secure.”

Sakura subsided, nodding shortly and retaking her spot in the diamond. Professionalism retained despite Ino’s presence. So far, so good.

“Naruto, one clone, please,” sensei requested, his own clone appearing beside him and his hands blurred through the summoning jutsu, the pug from his contract, Pakkun, appearing with a simple, “Yo. Not back in Konoha yet, boss?”

“No, had an emergency,” sensei said, “Track this scent – there’s a spot about a mile back that’s the kill zone, we need to find their hideout. Should be mixed with Zabuza’s.”

Pakkun took a few whiffs of sensei’s bloody arm (now _that_ had been a cool jutsu) and nodded, saying, “You got it boss,” before searching the area with the clones following him.

Sasuke _seriously_ wanted to learn kage bunshin – then he could back sensei up on these errands too! Naruto was getting so much more experience than he was this way, it was ridiculous!

“All right team, expanded diamond around Team Ten and Tazuna. Asuma, you going to make it yourself?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine,” the man groaned, pulling himself to his feet slowly. “Didn’t think the old man would send another genin team – didn’t think he’d send anyone, actually.”

“We were in Keiharu, it was convenient,” sensei replied, Sasuke having to strain a bit to hear after he took up his position – Ino was, of course, the closest member of Team Ten to him but was at least limiting her fangirlishness to heated looks and sidelong glances rather than doing anything else. He seriously didn’t want to deal with that. At all.

Actually – since Naruto could kawarimi with a jounin, he could surely do a replacement with him…

Something to bargain for.

He could probably swap tips for the chakra-string exercise, because that had been super useful fighting the hunter-nin. The whole fight had been an adrenaline fueled rush, he didn’t even remember it starting, not clearly – just a sudden flash of white and there were so many senbon flying at him – he hurled kunai and shuriken, enhanced for speed and strength but the nin was just too _fast_ he only got some blows because of those chakra strings, he was able to tug them back towards him while the nin was in the way. Now that he was calmer, he could remember where the sharingan activated – things were suddenly clearer, and more set in his memory – he’d been able to count the senbon as they flew towards him, deflect some with his kunai and drop in time for sensei to crash into the fight and take care of things.

They’d been so _fast_!

Sakura had been pleasingly competent, assessing his arm and informing him of the paralysis points, which was reassuring, especially when she was able to start removing them and confirm there wasn’t any poison. Naruto had been weirdly protective and Inuzuka-like – and when the hunter-nin had shown up again his fast reactions and that weird trace of intense killing intent – he was just glad that sensei had flashed over and killed the nin with his chirping lightning jutsu, blood-shower aside.

Something that made him want to shy away from _Naruto_ couldn’t be good.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Kakashi was relieved when they reached Tazuna’s house and the man greeted his daughter and introduced Team Ten – Asuma handled their introductions and Kakashi graciously turned down her offer to come inside immediately. He and his genin needed to wash up and review appropriate behavior before they went in there.

Judging by Sasuke’s easing tension as they walked towards the household dock and Team Ten was ushered inside, he wasn’t the only one who needed a bit of a breather.

Taking off his vest, Kakashi considered his shirt and gloves ruefully before pulling them off too, cackling mentally when his kids sagged as his under-mask remained in place. Suckers.

“Damn it sensei!” Naruto grumbled, crouching down and splashing water on his face, “We _will_ see your face eventually!”

“You will,” he agreed, “How’s this, when you’re Hokage, I’ll show you three my face, so long as all of you are alive, jounin and in Konoha for the promotion ceremony.”

“Deal!” they all chorused, Sakura turning to Naruto and saying grimly, “Sasuke and I have a lot of work to do.”

“Hey!” Naruto spluttered, Sasuke finally chuckling out loud, which was undoubtedly the goal if Sakura’s pleased grin was any indication.

Shaking his head, Kakashi unsealed his pack and dug around for another shirt, kneeling next to the water-line and scrubbing his arm and gloves clean before pulling the clean shirt on. After that he set to work on the shirt, water around the dirty sleeve turning pink. “Neh sensei – what was with that guy?” Naruto asked, “He had a mask like ANBU!”

“That was a fake hunter-nin,” Kakashi replied, “From Kiri. Or at least pretending to be from Kiri, that ice-jutsu he used looked like a bloodline from there, but they were reported wiped out during the massacres.”

“Why would you fake being a hunter-nin? Don’t they – oh. If Zabuza-san got in a tough spot, the hunter-nin could jump in and fake killing him with senbon, I read about some death-like state really good senbon users could induce – and then drag him away without people being suspicious,” Sakura explained, wringing out her hair and sitting back on her heels, “Right sensei?”

“Exactly Sakura-chan,” he smiled at her, wringing out his shirt and checking the sleeve – not quite clean yet. “Standard policy for hunter-nin is to behead the body and burn it on the spot, so there might be some suspicion if he took off with the supposed corpse, but on the whole, slim odds. Especially if the only goal was to escape.”

He checked his shirt again – good enough. Wringing it out and tossing it over his shoulder after he put on his vest, he sealed up his pack and asked, “Ready to head inside?”

“First, Naruto – if you kawarimi with me whenever Ino tries to hug me, I’ll teach you the chakra string thing sensei taught me – and a fire jutsu if sensei okays it,” Sasuke offered, Naruto perking up at the idea of a new jutsu – and a new jutsu that set stuff on _fire_ at that.

“I’ll send a clone so I don’t get a concussion, so there may be a bit of delay, but you have a deal!” Naruto grinned, the two genin shaking on it.

Trading knowledge with allies already! His little genin were growing up so fast.

“I’ll try to distract her,” Sakura sighed, “With this scar being visible, shouldn’t be too hard, she was giving me weird looks the whole walk here. Do I tell her what really happened sensei, or the edited report you made us read? Or Naruto’s story – whatever that is.”

“The edited one,” Kakashi replied promptly, having thought more about it on the walk over and realizing there was a problem with telling them Naruto’s story, even though he was seriously looking forward to hearing what he had come up with. “The real story is much less epic, neh? Just make sure you tell her that your parents are going to hear a different story so they don’t know you got that injured in training, so she doesn’t blow your cover with them. Since your injury was treated by a medic-nin and is in the edited story’s report, she may one day look it up and know you lied to her – better to seal her with conspiracy against your parents. She’ll understand, she’s a clan child.”

“Right, thanks sensei,” she nodded, Sasuke saying quietly, “Thanks Sakura.”

She absolutely _lit up_ at that. Her crush probably wasn’t entirely gone then, but she was at least capable of hiding it and working as a competent teammate, so he’d leave it be for now. It’d die (or not) as it would.

“Good. Now, let’s go in and get the story behind this. We need information from all perspectives, and then we’re going to see where we fit in to help. No offers of assistance without my okaying it, got it? Konoha hasn’t profited from this yet.”

“Hai sensei.”

He’d make professionals out of them yet!

Naruto made a clone to follow them in, which was a good thing as the moment Sasuke stepped in the door Ino lunged for him, squealing, “Sasuke-kun!”

Her face when she was left hugging a Naruto was _priceless_ and she shouted, “Naruto-baka!” swinging her fist towards his head – Kakashi sighed and grabbed her wrist, saying sternly, “I would appreciate it, young kunoichi, if you did not assault _any_ members of my team. Your attentions are not wanted.”

“Thanks sensei,” his boys chorused, the clone dispelling himself.

Releasing her and leaving the girl to retreat to her teammates, rubbing her wrist with wide eyes, he turned to the sitting Asuma and Tazuna, saying, “I have received authorization to renegotiate the terms of the contract and serve as witness for Konohagakure no Sato. What has been agreed to already?”

He sat down next to them while his genin split as he’d implied they should, Naruto bounding over to Shikamaru and Chouji while Sakura approached Ino gingerly. Sasuke hesitated before going into the kitchen to find Tazuna’s daughter and either offer help or question her – ah, sounded like a combination of both. Such a good bunch.

“As initially hired, our contract with Tazuna-san is up,” Asuma said, chewing on a cigarette but not lighting it – apparently smoking wasn’t allowed inside this house. Good, Kakashi’s nose thanked that policy. “But given the fact nukenin have been hired against him, it seems likely that as soon as we leave, the problem will continue.”

“If I could just finish my bridge,” Tazuna inserted, an undertone of desperation in his voice – get in line, old man, a lot of people hired shinobi out of desperation – “Then Gatou’s stranglehold will be released and people will stop being so scared of him!”

Kakashi _highly_ doubted it would work that way. Given Gatou’s usual policies, he could easily hire a nukenin or two to blow up the bridge when it was completed, giving them the illusion of success and allowing them a day or so of hope before crushing it completely. Do that, make an example of the bridge-builder and his family, and there you had it – guaranteed fearful obedience for at least a couple of years before desperation made people stupidly brave again.

Given the look Asuma was shooting him, he agreed but didn’t want him to spell it out to the civilian. Please, he knew _something_ about civilian-shinobi relations. Not a _lot_ granted, but something.

“So you want to hire Team Ten as protection until you finish your bridge?” Kakashi said blandly, “Given the rank of nukenin after you, the originally C-rank escort mission was definitely an A-rank. Assuming we call the country of Wave your home, the journey here with the Demon Brothers was a B-rank at least. Adjusting that price to a B-rank, along with the surcharge for lying to us in the _first place_ , leaves you 80,000 ryo in debt.”

Tazuna spluttered and he could hear Tsunami-san choke, Kakashi continuing mercilessly, “An additional protection mission of indeterminate length – let’s say a week, to be on the safe side – against unknown opponents of up to A-rank… that would be a B-rank with a potential for increase depending on opponents encountered. So that’s another 100,000, at least. This is, of course, assuming you are interested in hiring only Team Ten. Normally, you would be charged an additional 50,000 ryo for our assistance in the resolution of your falsely-classified mission, however as we were ordered here by our Hokage to assist Team Ten without any such terms being stated, that surcharge is being disregarded.”

Asuma spoke up then, tone deliberately chiding – they’d played this sort of game before, after all – “Come on Kakashi, be reasonable. The man would have paid for the higher rank mission if he’d had the money – and surely you’ve seen the place? That Gatou creep has the entire country _starving_ to line his pockets, it’s not right.”

“I am being reasonable,” Kakashi said, “I just want him to understand the kind of debt he’s incurred. Now Tazuna-san, Konoha does have a policy for completing missions on the understanding of payment on a later date, or even for favors – for example, if your bridge were completed, we’d accept a trade agreement where there were increased export taxes on your goods for ten years, or Konoha and Hi no Kuni received preferential treatment in trade agreements up to the value owed.”

“For future reference, old man, if you’d told the mission desk that when you asked for this mission, this could be done _without_ the surcharge, and, more importantly, _without_ putting _my students_ at excessive risk,” Asuma said, conciliatory attitude dropping away to let the bridge-builder know just how big a mess he’d made with this lie of his.

“I wouldn’t,” Tazuna gulped, looking between the two of them, “I wouldn’t be able to say anything with that – I mean, the daimyo has final call on that sort of taxing stuff but… but if I finished this bridge, I’d have the right to charge a toll to use it. I wouldn’t for a bit, to get people to use it, or at least wouldn’t for people coming out of Wave – but I could at least make it so no Konoha citizen paid, and then give all my toll money to Konoha until the debt was paid off. I don’t know how long it would take, to do that, but… I at least have the power to offer that. I can’t say anything about taxes and stuff.”

“Hmm. Acceptable. We’ll hash out details like toll amounts and interest later, depending on if your daimyo is open to contracting with us,” Kakashi agreed, knowing the daimyo, who had obviously let Gatou get a foothold in the country, would undoubtedly agree to no such thing unless Gatou’s head was in hand.

But the tolls – that was a decent idea. And one that would let them do the mission without getting a reputation for freebies, but still keeping Konoha’s reputation as ‘friendly and merciful’.

And since the man wasn’t asking about hiring Team Seven, more than understandable, given the sheer volume of debt he’d accumulated already without increasing his protectors, Kakashi’s side-mission might just have a chance to kick in. This once, it seemed having baby genin wasn’t going to cramp his style.

Tazuna let out a gusty sigh of relief, bowing to both of them and saying, “Thank you, shinobi-san. Wave and I are both in your debt.”

“Maa, just the job,” Kakashi waved him off, relatively cheerful now that Konoha was profiting, grabbing a scroll and pen from his vest and writing up the contract before signing it as witness, “Read it over and sign if you agree, Tazuna-san, then pass it off to Asuma. Jounin are allowed to accept missions on behalf of their genin.”

The man read every word – not a complete idiot then – and signed quickly, passing the scroll and pen off to Asuma who didn’t even bother skimming it before he signed with a flourish. An opportunity lost!

“I think I’m going to take that offer of a futon, Tazuna-san,” Asuma grimaced, flexing his left hand experimentally, “I need to treat these cuts and pass out.”

“Right, yes, let me show you to the guest room – we should have enough rooms for the girls to share their own,” Tazuna said, standing quickly and Asuma was about to follow so Kakashi took the opportunity to ask, “Want me to do anything with your kids?”

“…Nah, you got your own brats to deal with. Besides, it’s not like you’re getting paid for this,” Asuma shrugged, looking over his shoulder at his genin, “Oy, Team Ten! Take it easy for the evening, help out Tazuna-san and Tsunami-san if they need it, obey Hatake-san’s orders, but you got the evening off. See you in a few hours, hopefully.”

“Sweet, I’m exhausted,” Ino huffed, “Thanks sensei.”

Asuma waved it off and followed Tazuna into the hall and up the stairs, from the sounds of it. Kakashi made a copy of the contract for his own records and read the signed one with the sharingan – between that and the Yamanaka extraction technique, if the worst happened he’d have proof it was agreed to.

So far, he hadn’t ever needed to use that combination because he didn’t want people in his head. Ever. Which meant he reacted very, very strongly to those who made contracts vanish or change terms without his agreement, because they made him risk dealing with just that.

The joys of a mercenary existence.

Leaving the unsigned copy on the table, he tucked the original away and rose to his feet, turning to Tsunami-san and saying, “May I steal away my student, Tsunami-san? Also, if you and I could negotiate compensation for room and board during the duration of the mission at some point, that would be appreciated.”

“Of course,” she smiled, a very pretty woman, too bad this was a mission, “Thank you, shinobi-san, for being willing to renegotiate. Perhaps we could have that discussion after dinner?”

Ah, so she _had_ had dealings with shinobi before and understood what her father had risked. Good to know, and very curious, that she had known what her father had not. “At your convenience, Tsunami-san. Sasuke, come along. Naruto! Sakura! Outside, let’s go, chop chop!”

“You mean chirp, chirp,” Naruto said, standing from where he was sprawled next to Shikamaru.

“No no,” Sakura replied, wagging her finger as she walked to the door, “Chop chop is right – you use a kunai to threaten people to get moving. Chirp chirp makes them _stop_ moving. Permanently.”

“Are you calling my A-rank Raiton jutsu _chirp chirp_?” Kakashi asked, unable to keep a note of incredulity out of his voice. Really, he had thought _Naruto_ was bad – at this rate, the Naruto-Sakura team was going to be far, far more dangerous to his and Konoha’s sanity.

Heaven help them if they managed to wrangle Sasuke into more of their schemes. To think, he had thought the girl was the innocent one.

“That’s what it sounds like, sensei,” Sakura replied virtuously, eyes wide and attempting to be guileless – she managed remarkably well, really.

“And we don’t know its name,” Naruto supplied with a mischievous grin, “Have to call it something!”

Kakashi started to tell them before sighing, his chosen name wasn’t going to help his case in the least. At their eager eyes (even Sasuke, damn it!) he gave in and said, “It’s called _chidori_ , it’s an original technique of mine.”

“Yeah – chirp chirp totally makes sense,” Naruto nodded smugly, the four of them finally passing into the trees surrounding Tazuna’s property. “So what are we doing, sensei?”

“We’re going to take advantage of the afternoon light and examine our corpses for intelligence,” Kakashi replied, happy to get back on a serious topic, “Did the Academy talk about corpse-searching?”

“Uh… just that there were dangers, since they could be trapped, I think,” Naruto answered, of all people.

“That was the long and short of it,” Sakura agreed, apparently considered the resident expert on all things Academy. “They talked a little about the fact you could get intelligence that way, and that bringing in corpses for bounties was a good way to supplement your own income, but not much.”

“Well then, allow me to educate you,” Kakashi said, bowing with a slight flourish and producing his corpse scrolls. “These are specially designed sealing scrolls intended for corpses – when sealed, the corpse does not decay for at least a year, and remains recognizable for at least three. These have standards after all. Black and red trim are for enemy corpses, black and gold trim are for allies,” he grew more solemn as the topic distanced from any sort of humor beyond black, “Every shinobi carries at least one of each. Personally, I carry one ally scroll for each of my teammates per mission and at least that many enemy scrolls. I always keep three – two enemy, one ally – easily accessible. These scrolls are also special in that you can store them within standard storage scrolls without damage. Explosive tags – and specially marked ones – are the only other seals commonly used that can be layered like that. Not recommended mind, but not catastrophic.”

“How hard is it to create tags that can be stored like that?” Naruto asked, “At least, compared to basic tags.”

“The ones I taught you can be stored. It’s possible to make ‘shorthand’ seals for use in combat especially things like explosive tags – but first you need a thorough understanding of theory. If you want, I can get you some scrolls on it so you can advance independently – but don’t experiment unless I’m around all right?” he had visions of a demolished Konoha, a sheepish Naruto in the middle saying, “Uhhh… too much chakra?”

The Sandaime would _kill_ him.

“Of course sensei!” Naruto beamed, “That sounds awesome, thanks!”

“Good. All right, Zabuza first, or hunter-nin?”

“Hunter-nin!” Sakura cheered, and Kakashi shook his head, unsealing the proper scroll and the body thudding into the ground again. He kneeled on one side, his genin kneeling across from him and watching curiously – he wasn’t surprised. Once the body was dead, there was a gruesome sort of curiosity that took hold and overrode a lot of nausea. Given, this was a pretty clean death, and no need for a full autopsy, so that helped.

“All right, first thing you want to do is see their face, especially if you’ve familiarized yourself with the bingo book so you have a solid chance of recognizing any good bounties,” he began.

They were hanging off every word, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Sakura was itching to take notes. Seriously, they were pretty adorable.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Ino sat down next to Shikamaru and Chouji, demanding, “Okay, what did Naruto-baka tell you?”

“Don’t think he’s baka anymore, Ino. Not with that swap they pulled with Zabuza,” Chouji pointed out.

“Please,” she waved him off, “Sakura-chan told me that it was her and Sasuke’s plan with their sensei correcting it. Naruto-baka had nothing to do with it.”

“Sakura-chan?” Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, “Not Forehead?”

Ino hesitated, before nodding, saying, “Sakura-chan told me she’d decided to worry about catching Sasuke-kun later, and that our nicknames were only okay if they were amiable, and she didn’t think they were. So she stopped calling me Ino-pig and I stop calling her Forehead. Whatever, she’s just trying to lull me into a false sense of security! I’ll still conquer in the realm of love!” she vowed, holding her fist to the heavens with fire in her eyes.

“Ugh. So troublesome.”

“What was that?!”

Tsunami sighed, looking at the meal she was creating ruefully as she listened to the children explode into an argument (or at least the girl did, if she wasn’t mistaken, the boys were entirely ignoring her and one seemed to be asleep). She’d been thinking about asking the remaining genin for help, but she’d probably have better luck if she waited for that other team to come back in – they had plenty for tonight, but they may need some extra fish tomorrow, with all these shinobi here to protect her father.

If she worded it right, she’d even get them to help her out without that silver-haired jounin charging her anything for it. The children would be easy enough to guilt into doing chore-like errands for free – she had the patented mom voice, after all. But with her father having pulled a stupid stunt to get discounted protection and then gotten called on it, she wasn’t about to risk anything that might be even vaguely interpreted as taking advantage without proper compensation.

Honestly, it was a good thing her father let her handle the finances most of the time, he obviously had no head for it whatsoever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We begin Wave Arc proper... a few more chapters for this arc, we'll see if any new ideas come along to kill my three chapters like last time... Hope this works for you, more of a world-building chapter than any epic action sequences.


	10. B-rank, go?

Kakashi-ichi followed Pakkun silently, Naruto-ichi equally quiet, to his surprised contentment. There was plenty to think about, and he also just wanted the chance to pay attention to their surroundings without having to worry about entertaining or instructing his genin. It was kind of exhausting, being a teacher.

Respect, Academy teachers. Respect.

Pakkun was inspecting the scent trail’s crossing of a stream when Naruto-ichi snickered, Kakashi-ichi raising an eyebrow and the younger clone responding cheerfully, “They got to Tazuna’s place just fine – Sasuke-teme bargained with Boss to get kawarimi’d whenever Ino tried to molest him.”

Kakashi-ichi snorted, Pakkun echoing it and saying, “Got the trail. Man, your other kid has it bad – fangirls. You had a couple of those, didn’t you, Boss?”

“None as bad as that, we were in a war, after all,” Kakashi-ichi shrugged, leaving out the fact that his father’s failure had stained his name for good – and by the time he’d started rebuilding the Hatake reputation, he was out of reach of the worst perpetrators of fangirl-ism. Experienced kunoichi at least had some self-respect. “Definitely dodged a shuriken there.”

“Yeah – that’s one thing Boss never envied,” Naruto-ichi agreed. “Hey sensei, what’s the plan when we find this place?”

“Depends on if there’s anyone else there. If no, investigate, if yes, see what we can do,” Kakashi-ichi explained, and just in time as they reached a small outwardly abandoned house, Pakkun saying, “Scents concentrate here, probably their headquarters. See ya, boss,” before dismissing himself.

“Definitely not someplace Gatou would hang out,” Naruto-ichi wrinkled his nose, “Well, here goes!”

Another clone popped into existence, saluting before darting into the building, crashing through the door and calling, “All clear in here!”

“Well that’s one way to investigate,” Kakashi-ichi mused, truly, Naruto’s chakra capacity was ridiculous – he probably didn’t even have to worry about kawarimi problems with a kage!

They entered and both Narutos started poking through things at random, Kakashi-ichi taking a more disciplined approach. “I thought the hunter-nin was a guy,” Naruto-ichi commented, holding up a pink floral yukata.

“Maa, maybe he liked pink,” Kakashi-ichi shrugged, _or was gender confused_ , he added mentally, deciding to avoid that particular detail of human psychology for the moment. Though given that oiroke no jutsu of Naruto’s, he _was_ the one he’d probably have to discuss it with.

It was late afternoon when they’d finished their investigation. There had been a fair amount of loot in the form of weapons and gear – and pink yukatas – but not much when it came to accessible written intelligence or money. That was pretty common though, and if the security-encoded scrolls stored in Zabuza’s packs were any indication, there was some serious potential for bonuses in the form of intelligence if they managed to get this back to Konoha.

“So, what’s the plan now, sensei?” the clone asked, “We dispel, carry stuff back, what?”

“Hmm… leave things here, for now. Can you manage another clone?”

“Sure thing!” Naruto-ichi chirped, firing off another one, Naruto-ni saying, “Want me to dispel for a message relay?”

“Indeed. Tell original-me that we’re sticking around to fool any visitors into thinking Zabuza and his accomplice are still alive until further orders are relayed, he’ll know what I’m thinking of doing,” Kakashi-ichi shrugged, stretching out on the larger bed and continuing once the second clone dispelled, “Meanwhile Naruto-ichi, we just hang tight and henge if anyone shows up. How many henges can you manage?”

“Uhh… a lot?” the clone just looked confused at the question, so Kakashi-ichi sighed. Chakra capacity detection problems, he’d bet – not something he thought would ever be a problem for a _genin_ , but he’d known this team was going to be weird to begin with.

“All right, then just… work on that plan to prank the council, quietly. We’ll be hanging out until original-me gets a plan together or Gatou shows up.”

“All right! Hehehehe… who to plot for first…”

***===***pagebreak***===***

“Hmm. Well, we’ll leave our clones for the night, we’ll head over in the morning after I confer with Asuma,” Kakashi said, mulling over the report Naruto had given once they’d finished with their corpse-clearing lesson. They’d done rather well with Zabuza after he’d finished lecturing over the hunter-nin, but the real test would be after a few days had passed at least – see how much they remembered.

Given the swirling sharingan that had been present for most of the session, he knew at least one would have near perfect memory. He’d have to pull Sasuke aside for a sharingan lesson at some point, and share his strategy of one to three pleasant and hilarious memories to mission and death related ones. From what he remembered of the massacre’s reports, he’d actually activated his sharingan that night and simply never done it since – so he had a backlog of nasty memories permanently embedded. Especially if that 72 hour replay genjutsu had been accurately described.

“Right, I’ll dispel another relay,” Naruto agreed, quickly doing just as he’d claimed.

“Sensei, how much longer until I’ll be able to make a kage bunshin?” Sasuke asked, “I’d like to go on those side-missions too.”

“Hmm… ask me tomorrow after your chakra has had a chance to recover from the day. Don’t activate your sharingan at all tonight unless we’re attacked,” Kakashi ordered, “Sakura, you have a few more weeks of chakra building exercises at the least, I’ll check again tomorrow.”

“Right, thanks sensei!” his kunoichi chirped, smiling, “So we’re going to the nukenin lair tomorrow?”

“Well that depends,” Kakashi half-shrugged, stretching out on the ground so he was propped up on his side to watch them. This was a potentially touchy topic, best to get them as at-ease as possible and if his body-language helped, then he’d take shameless advantage of it.

“Do you remember our conversation with Naka-san?” he asked, the three exchanging puzzled glances at the apparent non sequiter but all of them nodding nonetheless.

“Now, do you remember what he asked me after I said Gatou was controlling Wave with a decidedly Iwa touch?” he prompted, hopefully one of them would recall this, and if not, he’d give them the answer and they’d be embarrassed enough by their ignorance to pay more attention to seemingly inconsequential conversations. Win-win.

“He asked… he asked if there was a chance Konoha would take care of it without an official mission,” Sasuke said slowly, brow furrowed as he clearly wracked his memory, and Naruto lit up, snapping his fingers and saying, “Yeah! That’s when you said you had different responsibilities now and he started teasing you about having kids yourself!”

Of course Naruto remembered that part the best.

“Wait a minute,” Sakura blinked, a startled expression settling on her face, “Was he – was he asking if _you_ would take care of the issue without an official mission?”

Kakashi inclined his head, smiling at her deductions. Now he just needed to get the other two doing it, and to get her doing it in real-time more consistently.

“But why would you do that?” Naruto asked, frowning in confusion as he looked between them, “I mean – you just spent this whole time cracking down on Tazuna-san for not paying the right amount and hitting him with fees – I mean, you even talked about negotiating room and board costs with Tsunami-san! Why would you do a mission without it being an official paid one?”

“And what makes it okay for you to do it and not Team Ten?” Sasuke added, eyes narrowing, “Is it because they’re genin? Can their sensei not authorize those sorts of things? Or is it because it’s _us_ involved?”

Asking all the right questions. They really were a good bunch.

“Well, first off, there is a certain amount of leeway all shinobi are granted when it comes to fulfilling missions. This degree of leeway increases as you go up in the ranks and the missions get more and more complex. For example, take your D-rank missions – most of them are pretty simple, weed this garden, deliver this package from point A to B, watch these kids – but they don’t detail the exact corner of the garden to start in, the down-to-the-steps route you need to take, a minute-by-minute itinerary of what you should do with the kids. So you have the mission objectives, and you meet them. This is where you use your common sense and good-business practices to design a means of completing the mission objectives without alienating your clients. We want repeat customers after all.”

“So… the mission’s the goal, and it’s up to us to complete it in a way that makes the client happy?” Sakura hazarded a summary, “Like – if we’re given a mission to weed a garden, we clearly wouldn’t use a katon jutsu to sear the whole place. Sure, the weeds would be removed, but the rest of the plants would be destroyed and we’d get a super bad rep and fail the mission.”

“Bit of an extreme example, but yes,” Kakashi nodded, “Now, take our shore-patrol mission. Sasuke, what other means could we have used to technically complete the mission but not satisfy our customer?”

“Well, our customer was the village itself,” Sasuke said with careful deliberation, “And the stated objective was to monitor for hostile activity, with regional emphasis on piracy, while checking in on outposts. So… we could have… had Naruto send out a bunch of clones to check on everyone at once while we hung out on a beach?”

Kakashi snorted, imagining the Sandaime’s reaction to _that_ mission report.

Yeah. He didn’t think so.

“And for the messenger mission – we could have handed it off for some random civvie runner to deliver instead of doing it personally?” Naruto guessed, “Or – handed it off to the housekeeper that answered the door instead of waiting to see Naka-san ourselves?”

“The former would violate the terms of the mission while the latter would technically be within parameters since it was a delivery to the Naka household rather than the Naka patriarch,” Kakashi clarified, “But in essence, accurate, all of you. Now, extrapolate. You have a little leeway as genin – what sort of leeway do you think _I_ have?”

“Team huddle!” Naruto called, reaching out and dragging the other two to lie on the ground next to him, the three of them putting their heads together and engaging in a fierce whispered debate. Kakashi just chuckled and stretched out on his back, pulling his book out from his vest and resting his head on his free arm. They’d get it, he was sure.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Sakura could almost feel her mind grabbing pieces to try and stitch things together to answer their original question. Why would sensei do a freebie mission, especially since they’d literally just seen him do the exact opposite of even allowing a freebie mission?

“Sensei’s a jounin, and a clan-head, and probably a former ANBU Captain,” Sasuke reported lowly after Naruto had pulled them into a weird huddle sprawled across the forest floor. “So he’s probably got a _lot_ of leeway.”

“And leeway’s good,” Naruto pointed out, “Because it means you can get a lot of things done on the way to your goal.”

He must have spotted their askance looks because he explained, “Well, like training, right? You have a goal, and meet tiny goals to get to it. Or a really big prank – the Hokage monument thing, that was my objective, right? But on the way to it, I got supplies I needed to test, so I got to do some other small pranks on the side that were still tons of fun and all, but weren’t my final goal. Since my client was myself, basically, I could do whatever I wanted so long as I met my final goal!”

“And that’s the angle,” Sakura gasped, “You’re _your own client_! Or rather – I mean – ugh. It makes sense in my head!” she groaned, grasping at her hair and Inner bewailing her inarticulate nature before she grumbled a curse and gave it a shot anyway, “Look, so it’s like sensei said, our goal is repeat clients, our goal is _happy customers_ – how do merchants get loyal customers? Or get new people to come in? They have deals, sales and clearances and stuff! If you develop a relationship with them, they cut you some slack, give you a lower starting price to haggle from – like a give-away! That’s a freebie mission, it’s like those cheap free samples people hand out!”

She beamed at her teammates, certain she was on the right track with that.

“But if we use Naka-san’s question as an example, that makes it sound like sensei’s done freebie missions on the scale of deposing tyrants,” Naruto pointed out, “And that sounds like a _really expensive_ free sample to be handing out.”

Sakura deflated, before Sasuke smacked the ground with his fist and said, “But it’s not!” he smirked at the two of them, eyes swirling to red before fading back to their usual charcoal shade – that was going to take some serious getting used to. “We’re thinking too small, we’re not just paid in mission pay, we’re paid in mission _loot_ – think about it! With the restaurant missions, we got free food sometimes, with the patrol mission, we got a free trip to the beach, with the messenger mission, we got an audience with an influential merchant house. That’s _on top_ of what we’re actually paid. So missions like this one would be even _better_ if you did it right, because the payout would be huge both in money _and_ in reputation building.”

“And in intelligence!” Naruto snapped his fingers, a smile blazing across his face, “Like those accounting books and coded messages and maps from the pirates! Or even the stuff we found at the nukenin hideout!”

Sakura beamed at them, thrilled her mental breakthrough had prompted their own, “I think we got it!” she said, the two boys exchanging nods and then looking to her. Sakura shook her head though and nodded towards Naruto, “If we’re going to see sensei’s face, you’d best get used to talking professionally. You do it this time.”

Naruto visibly gulped and steeled himself before nodding, a determined expression crossing his face and he sat up, Sakura and Sasuke following his lead, and he said, “We think we’ve got it, sensei.”

Sensei looked over at them briefly from his book and just raised an eyebrow. Sakura had to give Naruto an encouraging nudge to get him to start talking, and the blonde took a deep breath before saying, “It’s not a freebie mission. It’s a mission in Konoha’s best interest. If you’ve done these kinds of missions before, that means your leeway is _huge_ because you can basically assign yourself missions so long as they’re for the good of Konoha or at least not _against_ Konoha. So if you were presented with a situation and you judged that the loot gained from the mission – either monetary, intelligence, or reputation boosting – outweighed the cost that would have been charged if it was formally presented and the risk if you fail, you’d be able to act on it.”

“There you go,” Kakashi-sensei gave his eye-smile and sat up, putting his book away – he _had_ to have a storage seal in his vest or something because there weren’t any bulges or indications that he had a pretty hefty book hidden away in there. “Well-reasoned you three, and good presentation Naruto. We’ll get all three of you used to verbal reports in no time at this rate.”

“So is that the kind of leeway all jounin have?” Sasuke asked promptly, eyes narrowing.

“No,” sensei replied, some of Sasuke’s intentness fading at that response and Sakura had to stop herself from biting her lip again. He’d wanted that leeway, she was sure, but it couldn’t be something every jounin had, or otherwise Asuma-san would have renegotiated terms with Tazuna-san himself. “To be perfectly frank, there are probably only four or five shinobi in the entirety of Konoha that the Hokage has actually granted explicit permission to take advantage of situations as we see fit for the benefit of the village. There’s a certain degree of self-serving in every mission of that nature, of course, but overall they must be for the good of the village. And if anything goes seriously wrong, your reasoning must be _flawless_ or that privilege and your career as a shinobi are probably going to be suspended, if not revoked entirely.”

She felt her eyes widen at that and she could tell the other two were equally surprised. It made sense, really, from a business-management perspective but still… it was weird to think that deciding to help someone out, or do the right thing might result in them being failures as shinobi if something went wrong.

“Neh, sensei, who are the others?” Naruto asked, “Are they all like you?”

“Like me?” sensei asked, cocking his head to one side, “What do you mean?”

“Well – like what Sasuke said,” Naruto mumbled, waving his hand towards Sasuke and continuing, “Jounin, clan-head, ANBU Captain and stuff.”

“No,” sensei replied shortly, before snorting, “One of them’s your old sensei actually, Umino Iruka.”

“Nani?!” Naruto gaped, Sasuke choking and Sakura stammering, “But – but he’s a chunnin!”

“Ah, but would he ever give himself a self-assigned mission that he couldn’t feasibly complete?” sensei leaned forward slightly, “It’s not power alone that matters, my adorable students. It’s whether or not you know how to use what you’ve got to accomplish your goals. And even more importantly, it’s when you can acknowledge and accept that you can’t accomplish everything, every time. That sometimes, it’s best to just leave things be for another day.”

“That sort of trust isn’t handed out to anyone with power, it’s handed out to those with true _self-awareness_ ,” sensei eyed them all seriously, “Which is one of the reasons I’m very proud of you three – so far, every one of your plans and exercise schemes has used nothing more than your true abilities. If you can hang onto that self-awareness, you three will go very far indeed.”

Sakura felt her spine straighten at that, the boys doing the same, pride warming her. Sensei was _proud_ of them, he thought they could go far! He thought _she_ could go far, civilian-born ex-fan-girl with a scar of stupidity on her face and bright pink hair on her head – and he thought she could make it.

And she _would_ by kami. She fucking _would_.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Kakashi felt rather touched as he watched his students fairly _glow_ after that honest statement of his. He had received quite a few compliments in his day, from his looks to his skills, but he could count on his fingers how many of those had honestly _impacted_ him, had honestly made him feel _proud_ that someone thought highly of him.

And every one of those had been from one of those he now only visited in his dreams.

It was probably a little early for anything like that, but it was heartening, touching really, to think that his students might view him with the same affection he’d held for Minato-sensei or his own father, before the whole disaster of Sakumo’s failed mission had soured their relationship. Given how short a time he’d had them under his tutelage, it was probably more the potential for that sort of relationship than already having it, but it was still… nice.

“Keeping that in mind now,” he said after a few moments of letting them bask in that compliment, and in turn basking in their reactions to his statement, “We’re being presented with a unique opportunity here. What were probably Gatou’s highest ranking henchmen are now dead, and the man might not even know that yet. His actions are clearly despicable, and removing him from the equation here in Wave would put them most certainly in our debt and we’d probably be able to wrangle some very nice concessions from them. Even if we couldn’t, it’d be easy enough to wipe out his own not inconsiderable savings and take that money for Konoha, which would probably more than pay for a mission of that rank.”

The three all had creases between their brows as they nodded along, Kakashi looking between them for a moment before saying, “This mission is an assassination, at its core. If you three decide to accompany me on this mission, I can guarantee all three of you will kill in the course of it. He’ll have guards, mercenaries, possibly even more shinobi, in addition to the man himself.”

“If we decide?” Naruto parroted hesitantly, “You mean – we don’t have to?”

“You don’t have to,” Kakashi said quietly, propping his chin on his hand and examining them through a half-lidded eye. “I am entirely capable of completing this mission myself. It would be training for you.”

The three all started exchanging looks at that, each of them apparently unwilling to make the first move. Naruto finally seemed to reach a decision, visibly squaring his shoulders and steeling himself before meeting Kakashi’s eye and sending a spasm of pain and longing memories through him; kami he looked so like Minato-sensei.

“You said, with the pirates, that they were going to be executed anyway, and I wouldn’t always have that comfort,” Naruto said, Kakashi inclining his head but not speaking, letting Naruto take a deep breath and continue, “This Gatou guy is a jerk. He’s a slaver, and a tyrant, and all around a total bastard. And if this is an assassination – we’re not always going to have that comfort either.”

Naruto’s eyes were dark and his expression grimly despairing, looking at his two teammates, “You always remember your first,” he said quietly, “I don’t want my first assassination to be for bogus reasons.”

Sakura reached out and grabbed his hand, her other hand going to grip Sasuke’s arm as she said, “All right then.” Looking between the two boys, the kunoichi said, “I think it’s probably better this way – to plan our first kills, to know they’re coming. And to know they deserve it.”

Sasuke let out a shuddering breath, before nodding shortly, sharingan blazing as he looked up at him, “We’re in, sensei. When do we start?”

“Tomorrow morning. I need to finalize negotiations with Tsunami-san and inform Asuma that we’re going to be sticking around for a bit. Then we’ll head for the nukenin’s hideout and relieve the clones,” he tilted his head thoughtfully and finally decided, “We’ll hack out an actual plan there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And even more world-building...


	11. Corporate Takeover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: reference to underage noncon (it's Gatou) and dead people (...it's Naruto.)
> 
> Chapter heads-up: base Team 10 skills/responsibility level on bit higher than canon Team 7 at this point, meaning... don't expect much.

The next morning, Kakashi waited for everyone else to wake up, as was usual even if his tardy habits didn’t make that obvious. He’d wanted to start some tea, but negotiations with Tsunami-san the night before had been fiercely entertaining and he didn’t want to sour that with assumptions of any sort. Assumptions had gotten the lot of them in this mess in the first place after all.

She’d also been the one who told Asuma no smoking in the house. For that, he might have been a bit generous in his terms with her last night.

He’d had a late night, exchanging some words with Asuma before heading out just before midnight to find Gatou’s estate. It had been a simple matter of talking to Tsunami-san and then combining her rumors and their nukenin hideout find. Pakkun had been happy to help, especially once he heard that this was the guy responsible for the slaves they’d saved a few days ago.

It hadn’t been particularly difficult to find the man’s estate, even a simple search grid could have done it. What had been a little more difficult was getting close enough to adequately assess the security of the place.

And when he said a little more difficult, he meant that if he’d been unprofessional enough to be reading while he trailed Pakkun, he’d have looked up from his book occasionally to sneak in. The mercenaries Gatou hired may be decent enough muscle, even decent enough fighters against civilians – maybe against genin too, if they were intelligent enough to strategize – but against him?

Snarling puppies, except less adorable by far.

Maybe snarling cats? No, that gave them too much credit for sheer evil…

Needless to say, had he been so inclined, he’d have killed Gatou and been in and out in a matter of hours and the whole problem would have been resolved by the dawn he’d watched on the dock a few minutes ago.

But he was a _sensei_ now, and that meant he should take advantage of this learning opportunity. As he’d pointed out to his students the night before, and as Naruto had very clearly understood, this was one of the least-ugly assassination missions you could get. The man honestly deserved it, and even a civilian would agree. Just the kind of assassination one should cut their teeth on – leave all those moral motivational questions for later, after they’d gotten the killing people part down.

Even better, it got them thinking about the morally questionable things in their future without the immediacy of a live mission to stress them out and make the entire matter more difficult to cope with.

“Good morning Sasuke,” he said over his shoulder, flipping another page – he’d finished the book the Sandaime had lent him, but thankfully he always carried a spare Icha Icha around so he at least had something to skim.

“Morning sensei,” the Uchiha grunted, moving around to sit across from him, “Who’s on watch?”

“Maa… me, it seems. Who was supposed to be on watch?”

“Chouji,” Naruto replied, yawning and scratching his chest as he stumbled into the room, “He didn’t wake up when I tried, so I set a clone on it and slept myself. It dispelled when you woke up – sorry. Team Ten’s totally exhausted, sensei, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad,” Kakashi lied mildly, flipping a page, “Though I am disappointed.”

“Yeah, me too,” Naruto grumbled, sitting down next to Sasuke, “Weren’t they supposed to be our teamwork rivals?”

“They may have excellent teamwork, making up for poor stamina,” Kakashi pointed out, “Did your clone see any of their fight? Did they use team tactics there?”

“Err… I guess? Shikamaru gave the orders and the other two listened, does that count?”

“Given the fact Ino regularly beats him over the head for laziness? I’d say it counts,” Sasuke replied dryly, looking back at Kakashi before saying, “Sensei, when are we heading out?”

“After we’re not the only shinobi on watch,” Kakashi replied, offering a half-shrug, “And breakfast, of course. Tsunami-san and I came to an agreement regarding room and board during our mission and it’d be a shame to skip a meal we’ve paid for.”

“You are such a cheapskate, sensei,” Naruto shook his head, grin growing on his face, “I like it!”

“I prefer the term fiscally sensible,” he replied, turning the page again and Naruto rolled his eyes, turning to Sasuke and saying, “So when do you make good on this fire jutsu you promised me?”

“When sensei says it’s okay, so not today, dobe,” Sasuke smirked, turning to face him before asking, “Sensei, I was thinking Great Fireball. I know it best and I learned it at six, so the dobe should be able to get it. Is that all right?”

“Maa, should be fine,” Kakashi rolled one shoulder in a shrug, “Stay on the water when you practice, we may as well take advantage of the environment while we’re here. But like he said Naruto, it’s going to have to wait at least a day.”

“Hai, hai, got it sensei,” Naruto flapped his hand, a gleeful look on his face, turning to Sasuke and demanding, “Show me the hand-signs so I can practice those at least!”

“Do I get to learn anything this trip?” Sakura asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she dropped down to sit next to Naruto.

“We’ll see how today goes,” Kakashi temporized, “But we’ll do a chakra level check for you and Sasuke and see how much longer you’ve got until you can manage a kage bunshin – once we get one of those for each of you, we’ll have a lot more options. For actual jutsu though… hmm… would you prefer iryo, or gen?”

“Gen,” Sakura replied promptly, “I need to practice with a fish a few more times before I advance.”

They were taking his self-assessment lecture seriously then, good. Very good. He’d have to continue rewarding them for it so long as they kept it up. Maybe a day off from training?

…Nah, who was he kidding? That’d be more of a punishment than anything. Maybe he’d take them out to dinner somewhere – somewhere where shinobi ran the place and anyone who had a problem with Naruto attending could take it up with _him_ , privately, elsewhere. With a possible guest appearance of chirp-chirp.

Ugh. They even had him doing it now.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t think anyone would be up yet,” Tsunami-san swept into the room, smiling at the four of them, “I’m afraid I’m used to my father’s schedule.”

“The time to discuss team matters was appreciated, Tsunami-san,” Kakashi replied, making sure his smile was obvious with his eye, “It allowed us to discuss training opportunities and make plans.”

“Well then, I’m glad. Would you care for some tea?”

“That would be wonderful, is there anything we can do to help? Sasuke and I can help in the kitchen, sensei and Naruto would be best kept far away,” Sakura smirked at Naruto’s theatrical cry of pain at her assessment. He had allowed for two assistants per meal at the most before he started charging, with three general errands to be used throughout the day from the genin, or one errand from the jounin.

Then he had written it all up and Tsunami-san had very carefully read every word, and even corrected a few ambiguous clauses before they’d both signed and shared a sharp-eyed smile.

It really was a pity this was a mission. Competence was very attractive.

“Maa… I can make some things,” Kakashi shrugged, “And field rations aren’t _supposed_ to taste good, Sakura-chan.”

“That doesn’t mean they need to be nausea inducing!” she retorted, following a giggling Tsunami into the small kitchen, Sasuke sighing and following.

“My instant ramen is awesome!” Naruto insisted, all of Team Seven casting him withering looks.

“That doesn’t count, Naruto,” Kakashi said.

Asuma showed up next, slumping next to Kakashi and mumbling morning greetings to the earlier risers, Naruto shoving a cup of tea under his nose. Apparently he had assigned himself serving duty – without being asked. Damn it, kid. “You’re all on your own today,” Kakashi said quietly, “We’ve got a side job.”

“My team’s mission anyway, don’t worry about it. You’re making my job a hell of a lot easier,” Asuma grumbled as the rest of Team Ten stumbled in and Naruto bounded over to stuff cups of tea in their faces, “Sorry you got dragged into this mess. I know how much you hate these missions. But he told a good sob story and Ino swore we’d help – and Wave country grows the best tobacco, figured a trade agreement would be worked out.”

“Also it’s a little hard to enforce the usual penalties with baby genin,” Kakashi replied ruefully, “They’re just… baby genin!”

“Ha, you don’t probably even remember learning about half this stuff,” Asuma chuckled, “Sucks for you man. Have fun with the big speech.”

Kakashi just rolled his eyes, he wasn’t _that_ socially inept. He just didn’t understand the big deal about half the ‘milestones’ jounin-sensei were expected to help their genin through. He’d gotten through Naruto’s big speech, had two more to go and if this Gatou raid worked out right they’d both be done in one fell swoop, so he’d hopefully sweep the board before they got back to Konoha.

“By the by,” he said casually, turning another page, “My genin were under the impression kawarimi with another shinobi was not only entirely possible, but was without unique risk.”

Asuma choked on his tea. So it wasn’t just him that found that appalling. Good to know, sometimes his standards were skewed.

“You’re kidding,” he said flatly.

“Not at all,” Kakashi replied mildly, “And Sakura-chan has memorized their textbook.”

Asuma started swearing under his breath, pulling out a cigarette and clamping it between his teeth, and then drinking tea around it. That couldn’t possibly taste good. “Lucky most of the graduates this year are clan kids,” he said after swallowing, “Yours would be the ones at the most risk of not knowing that. Sweet merciful kami – I assume this came up when you planned your interference with Zabuza?”

“Indeed. Naruto came up with a workable strategy to avoid risk to himself if the chakra capacity proved a problem – it seems they not only failed to mention it in class, but the students witnessed Naruto doing it with Inuzuka Kiba and one of his instructors,” Asuma’s continued cussing was very satisfying. It meant he’d have an ally when it came to storming the Academy – figuratively of course. The Sandaime and Naruto were rather fond of that one chunnin after all.

“I’ll check with my kids,” Asuma said, “Shit man. Thanks for the heads up – I’ll mention it in my report, reference you?”

“Sounds good to me,” Kakashi agreed, he planned to meet with the Sandaime and discuss it personally after all, so it wouldn’t drag him into something he didn’t plan to initiate himself. The joys of having a political-disaster-being-salvaged team.

Tazuna finally made it in, cracking his back and covering a yawn, with his grandson – named Inari, if Kakashi remembered right (which he did, of course) slunk in behind him, giving them all furious glares. Didn’t quite hide the bitter hopelessness and fear though. Hmm… seemed the kid had a more realistic understanding of their country’s situation than his grandfather.

Sad, he supposed, for a kid to have less hope than an elder.

But practical.

***===***pagebreak***===***

Naruto let himself enjoy the run to the nukenin hideout – sensei was keeping the pace down so Sakura wouldn’t be exhausted by the time they got there, so he had plenty of time to bounce off trees and do overly-flamboyant flips while he was there. Once you got the knack of tree-walking, it was tons of fun and made you look like something out of those awesome movies he sometimes got glimpses of!

Given, he was pretty sure real ninjas laughed hysterically at those things, but they still looked badass!

He’d decided to wear his mini-sensei shirt today, because when that whole thing with the pirates went down a couple of his clones had gotten blood in their mouths and it was gross. Also, it reminded him of the first time he’d played a prank _with_ someone – really with someone, not just coming up with an idea and having Kiba or Chouji (Shikamaru found it too troublesome) tag along so they could point and laugh and feel smug at the results while he did the work.

No, this time, he had been inspired, Sakura-chan had made it bigger and Sasuke-teme had rigged their hita-ates properly – the knot was a little different so it remained snug to the curves of their faces, which was definitely not something he’d have ever noticed.

That was going to be a good memory forever. And he could use good memories later today.

Especially since he had a feeling he and sensei would be tag-teaming the other two. Nice and morally friendly assassination aside, it was still an assassination. Sure, there would be fighting – there was no way they could raid a crime-lord’s headquarters and slip out unnoticed by the goons, not at their level. But their goal was going to be to kill as many as possible without them even knowing they were there, which took out a decent half of the coping strategies he’d been using to deal with the pirates thing.

Not to mention the fact that Sakura-chan hadn’t really been taking being a ninja seriously until recently, so may have never even thought about how their job boiled down to doing not-so-nice things (like killing people) for money until then. He’d never really _thought_ about it a lot, but he’d _known_. The Hokage had made sure he at least acknowledged that before he started at the Academy, even if he hadn’t really _gotten_ it until that one class when they were studying bleed-out points and it just suddenly _clicked_ , that this was _easy_. That being capable of taking a knife, flicking a wrist, and hitting an artery was only a few short practice sessions away.

That this was his _job_.

Anyway, he’d pulled a few pretty epic pranks out of that crisis, and gotten over it. Figured he’d have years before he’d needed to deal with it and he had, just not as many years as he’d thought.

Sasuke-teme probably had the opposite problem, Naruto was pretty sure he was really hung-up on the killing people part of their job and killing his asshole of a brother was the priority. But what if there was someone who resembled a cousin or something, and he had to kill them? What of one of the goons here begged and happened to pick a phrase that he’d heard a favorite aunt use, when his brother had massacred his Clan?

It could go either way, and he might as well figure it’d go the opposite of well.

Sensei gave a short flick of fingers and Naruto nodded, dropping down to jog in the back of their diamond. He liked the spot sensei had given him, it let him keep an eye on his teammates and left him and his clones as a buffer between them and any assaults from the rear. He also had keener senses than the other two, like smell and stuff, so he would probably notice anyone coming up on them before they would.

Not before sensei would, not yet, but maybe someday.

Sensei was also, quite literally, letting him watch his back, and he knew what that meant – sensei didn’t think he was a threat. Kyuubi and all, even after that weird _something_ had happened with the hunter-nin fight – sensei didn’t think he was a threat.

Sensei _trusted_ him.

They got within sight of the small house the nukenin had been using and Naruto glimpsed the too-pretty face of the hunter-nin before a much more familiar grin split that face and he beamed, waving at himself before getting hit with the best memories he’d ever gotten off a batch of clones.

“I’m a _genius_!” he whooped, sensei sighing and burying his face in a hand momentarily, “What was I thinking?” he muttered.

“Naruto?” Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow and Naruto cackled, elaborating, “Well they had all night, right? So clone-me spent the time thinking of pranks for the council! We have _got_ to get that approved, seriously!”

“You really don’t like the council, do you sensei?” Sasuke asked, smirking.

Kakashi-sensei just shook his head with a sigh, nodding towards the shack and saying, “Get inside you three, and let’s scheme. Naruto, another clone to join mine in standing the watch.”

Naruto beamed and complied, two clones bouncing over to the freshly made sensei-ichi while they went inside to check out their new headquarters. Gear and intelligence had been examined and sorted, so Naruto made a beeline for the extra shuriken and kunai, dragging Sasuke-teme with him. Some of his had probably been damaged in the hunter-nin fight and if they hadn’t, he still never wanted to find Sasuke standing in front of _that asshole’s_ rooms looking lost and grim and horrified again.

Sakura glanced over their way but was sorting through the medical supplies his clone had made a separate pile of, coincidentally close to the pretty yukatas clone-him had found. Maybe she’d like some, maybe she wouldn’t. He thought a couple would look really nice on her and if she didn’t take one, he definitely would for some oiroke no jutsu practice, but he wasn’t going to suggest it.

Taking fashion advice on selections out of the wardrobe of your dead enemy might be a little much at the moment. It had taken his clone some oiroke style henge pranks (innocent blue-eyed little girls searching for lost kittens came to mind) to get over the idea him-it-self.

He’d get over a _lot_ for the sake of some of those pranks!

“While you three are enjoying the spoils,” sensei said dryly, Naruto looking over somewhat sheepishly, even though sensei was being a total hypocrite since he was examining some of the wire his own clone had set aside, “I am going to brief you on Gatou’s headquarters and we’re going to plan.”

“You’ve been?” Naruto asked, startled, before shaking his head, muttering, “No, of course you have. That’s where you were last night, right?”

“Exactly,” Kakashi-sensei nodded slightly, “And if you three hadn’t decided to take advantage of this opportunity, I’d have dealt with him then too.”

On one level, sensei was a total badass and Naruto hoped one day he was as cool as him. On another, sensei was fucking terrifying.

***===***pagebreak***===***

They were good kids, Kakashi thought, watching them as they worked out a plan for another night raid on Gatou’s headquarters. They had quickly decided that a night raid was best, as that was when Kakashi had inspected the place so it was more likely everything would be accurate, as well as the fact it made it more likely Gatou himself would even be there. He’d let them keep thinking for a while longer before he forced them to present a plan or two and then walked through it with them. It wasn’t like they didn’t have the time.

It was going to be interesting, how this one worked out. Most first kills were in the heat of combat, an ambush even, so there would be no planning outside the basic ‘it could happen’. But this one – Sakura and Sasuke knew it was coming, knew and were bracing themselves for it. He honestly had no idea which way was better, so it’d be something of a social experiment.

Shit, this whole team was a social experiment, it was just miraculously working better than he could have ever hoped.

His clone had organized all the written intelligence and started on decoding it, so he was just continuing the process. He had known that Momochi was run off after trying to assassinate the Mizukage, but hadn’t realized the man was still trying to build resources for a revolution. It made for an interesting thought exercise – how would he have reacted, had Orochimaru been made the fourth Hokage? If the man had gone completely off the deep end still, had continued his experiments even as a Kage – who knew if he would, perhaps he would have abstained if he’d been chosen, but that was in the past entirely – what loyal nin would stay?

Who would be more loyal, the one who tried to kill the bastard or the ones who ducked their heads and let everything their village stood for get washed away in blood?

Given, Kiri had been pretty washed in blood to begin with, that graduation policy had only changed after Zabuza had taken shameless and relentless advantage of it, but still.

More relevantly though, Kakashi was now the only living person who knew where all of those resources were. It might be worth it to send word to the Kiri revolutionaries; no link to Zabuza and he apparently wouldn’t support them at all, but they might be grateful for those resources. Grateful feelings, which foreign shinobi actively interfering would most certainly not engender, might be useful. Especially if he layered things appropriately so it was easy – but not blatantly so – to find out it was _he_ who had sent them these supplies.

Having Kiri revolutionaries ever so slightly in his debt would be handy someday, he was sure.

Clone-sent memories washed over, derailing everything, as to be expected.

“Huh.”

“New plan!” Naruto hissed, having received memories at the same moment, “Gatou’s here with two bodyguards!”

“We went to all this scheming for _nothing_?!” Sakura actually sounded insulted – so adorable.

“Only two?” Oh Sasuke…

“Naruto, henge,” Kakashi murmured, “Sasuke, disappear. Sakura – prisoner.”

They needed no further explanation, smoke leaving behind a placid-faced hunter-nin, a bandage-wrapped nukenin and a slightly battered Sakura huddled on the floor. Sasuke, clever brat, was nowhere to be civilian seen. He’d managed to blend in with the ceiling, clinging there so he could drop down behind Gatou and block the exit. It would be interesting to see how they decided to divide these kills.

It would also be interesting to see how they let this play out. Would they wait? Would they spring immediately? There were ups and downs to either approach, Kakashi mused, settling back in his chair and waiting for the games to begin. Getting them to defend their choice would be interesting – seeing if they all made the same choice, or at least were believable in acting in unison, would be equally interesting.

This mission really was checking off all the boxes.

“Why the fuck did I even waste money on you!” Gatou tried to snarl as he walked through the door, his nickel-samurai opening the door for him. “Heard you were a man who got things _done_ and I hear Tazuna’s back and working on his bridge? Demon of the Mist? Ha! More like the _Bunny_ of the Mist!”

Kakashi raised what would have been an eyebrow and let his grin bare all his bandage covered teeth. “The Konoha-nin he hired got reinforcements, wouldn’t be surprised if more of the tree-huggers started showing up soon. Sarutobi? Easy, the three brats aren’t even worth mentioning. Hatake’s the one to worry about, but don’t worry,” he sneered, jerking his chin towards Sakura, who cringed away with a faint whimper, “We’ve got collateral to bring him to heel.”

“What?” Gatou snorted, “This Hatake has some brat sucking him on the side?”

Gatou had just added at least thirty minutes to his death.

“That, is one of his genin students,” he said flatly, the scum in front of him scoffing and leering at the by now nauseous looking Sakura, “Please, a pink-haired ninja? Only one reason they’d drag her along – what do you say sweetie? Get paid for your work, meet some new people? Got plenty of girls you’d fit in _real_ nice with.”

Naruto was hiding fine tremors by sticking his hands up his disguise’s robe-sleeves, Sasuke was choking back some impressive killing intent and Sakura – she slowly rose to her feet, nausea burning away to leave an utterly incandescent fury in its wake. It took the merchant and even the body guards a shamefully long time to realize something was off, and by then Sakura was already screeching bloody-murder as she went for Gatou, Naruto lunging for the nearest guard while Sasuke tackled the other one with a kunai to the spine.

Kakashi sighed, shaking his head.

That temper would have to go. He’d thought Naruto would be the one to snap like that, especially with the fox stirring, but no.

“Right,” he said finally, Sasuke having immediately jumped into Naruto’s fight and dodged the sword like nothing with his blazing red eyes, giving the blonde an opening for a deep slice in the femoral, red spraying out as the man collapsed. Sakura was standing over Gatou’s gutted corpse, panting and seemingly torn between utter victory and making a face at the smell.

“That… got the job done,” he conceded, “But your break in cover was unacceptably rash Sakura – boys, good job jumping in anyway.”

“Thanks sensei,” the boys chorused while his kunoichi-in-training bowed her head before jerking it up, not willing to stare at the pooling guts at her feet. “I’m – I’m sorry sensei,” she whispered, “I just – how could he _say_ that?”

“We’ll be working on that temper of yours,” he said sternly, dropping his henge and his genin following his lead. “I don’t want you going into combat like that, fury burns out too quickly and fogs the mind horribly. Might be worth giving all you some temper-control exercises, that killing intent was nowhere near concealed enough for shinobi or even decently skilled samurai to overlook Sasuke, and Naruto – shaking hands are a bit of a giveaway, even up your sleeves.”

“Yes sensei,” they chorused, sounding disheartened.

Well he couldn’t have them all down on themselves, they’d accomplished their mission and in such a way no one would know Gatou was dead until some infiltrators cleared out his accounts, if they got back to Konoha fast enough. He’d clear out the mansion tonight, leave some for Wave and curry ever more gratitude for Konoha – but the kids were sitting this one out. If insinuations of getting her rank on her knees would send Sakura over the edge, he didn’t want to bring her somewhere where she’d see girls who _were_ forced to serve on their knees. Not yet at least.

“Maa, you did well brats,” he smiled, ruffling their hair and wishing briefly he had three arms before thinking about how that would look and no, not worth it. “Just gives us an idea of what we need to work on in the future – that’s what missions and training are for, all you have to do is live through them to learn the lessons, and you’ve got that part so far. We’ll clear this place out and head for Konoha in a day or two. Sakura, remember how to seal corpses?”

“I think so?” she hesitated and he offered her a red and black ringed scroll, “Seal up Gatou,” he said simply, “The other two we’ll just take the heads for a bounty record. Boys, check them for useful stuff and identification, then take the heads and seal them.”

“…Yes sensei,” the boys sounded dubious, but not distressed, so he’d keep an eye on them and leave a clone to stay in tonight. He was pushing them hard, he knew, but they’d delivered.

So far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cough* ...hi?
> 
> I DO have an end-game for this fic, which is honestly surprising since it started as a one-shot that I didn't have anything else for, but at this point it's just filling in the middle fiddly bits.
> 
> However, fic still isn't my priority, so... I'll update it eventually, I'm not going to abandon a WIP barring death/amnesia, but this fic isn't my priority, as I said.
> 
> Either way, hope you enjoyed it!


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